https://thebuckleyclub.com/american-voters-need-an-intervention-9448b8315183American Voters Need An InterventionAvi Wolff
At some point, we need to say the truth: It’s not the politicians. It’s you, dear voter.
Blaming Washington and the “elites” has always been fashionable sport in American politics, but it seems to have gone into overdrive this year. Confounded by the nomination of Trump and the seemingly inexorable rise of angry populism, pundits seem beside themselves to explain, justify, and excuse the nomination of this “disaster” of a nominee. For that, they’ve many targets: Washington, Wall Street, the “elites,” the ivory tower — everyone, it seems, except the American voter.
One common claim, for instance, is that the “politicians don’t listen to us.” This argument is absurd on its face. Politicians are elected and re-elected by convincing a majority of voters to choose them on polling day. That doesn’t happen without paying attention to what their constituents are saying and thinking: on the air, in calls and letters, in polls and other elections. Politicians can be and are attentive to what their voters want, for their own political survival if nothing else.
The problem is that the American voter often wants different things, often contradictory things, and often at the same time. Lower taxes and more entitlements but less debt. Lower regulation in one area and more in another. Protectionism for American products and a lower cost of living. An end to “welfare” but more Social Security (yes, Social Security is welfare) and Medicare. Pro-immigration and anti-immigration depending on how much it affects them for good or ill. Moreover, for every American voter who thinks one way about a subject, there is likely another American voter who thinks differently and is just as much a constituent of your average politician.
This leaves politicians in a serious conundrum. Even if they didn’t have to deal with lobbyists (who help them win over constituents) and interest groups (organized voters with specific interests) there is simply no way they can satisfy all these different demands which come from the American voter, even if there weren’t other problems like the damage such demands could cause and the rules of mathematics. Even if pure saints were sent to Washington every election, the American voter would still be frustrated with Washington — and unjustifiably so, for the fault lies with him.
Politics is Not Magic
Even worse that the schizophrenic nature of the American voter’s desires is his childish demand that everything “get done” now and his belief that it is only those bums on Capitol Hill who are stopping stuff from “getting done.” American voters are “tired of ideology” and just want to see some wizard go to Washington and solve everything, goes the cry. American voters “don’t care about the details,” it is said, they just want to “see things happen.”
This is nonsense on stilts and horribly irresponsible to boot. Even without the necessary negotiation and compromises every American voter seems to loathe but which are necessary to get politicians representing different and opposing constituents to pass bills, legislation (especially at its best!) is a complicated, slow process of careful reading, study, and pruning to make sure the cure isn’t far worse than the disease. Sometimes bills cannot be allowed to pass because they are destructive, sometimes the majority of the people are against whatever your pet project is, and sometimes Congress has other priorities that are genuinely more important than whatever cause you think will decide the country’s fate by tomorrow morning.
The American voter’s refusal to learn the basics of how his government works, how complex things really are, and what the general public thinks on the issue is not a virtue or something to be proud of — it is an embarrassing vice. Voters have a responsibility to inform themselves of all of this, and ten minutes of time a day on official websites would tell them everything they need to know. (And while we can and should blame right wing media outlets for misinforming voters, the ultimate responsibility lies with the willing consumers themselves).
There is no excuse whatsoever for ignorance in the age of the internet. All the necessary material to become reasonably informed is free and fairly easy to understand at the level of making a voting decision. You wouldn’t be caught dead buying a car, a house, or choosing a mate or a school for your kid with the same kind of lazy and proud know-nothingness with which you decide how to vote for national leaders who decide the country’s fate. You should care how things work so you can understand how hard it really is and how hard politicians really have it.
Vox Populi =/= Vox Dei
The American voters seem to think that because they are citizens and vote, they are not only part of the sovereign people which decides the fate of the nation but also a font of unique, infallible wisdom. This, too, is a dangerous illusion that needs to die.
American voters are no less human and fallible than the people they send to govern at all levels — local, state, and federal. They all have their own prejudices, biases, and often a glaring lack of knowledge on important matters. Their belief that every exact position they hold commands the support of a majority of the rest of American voters is rarely, if ever correct. Their understanding of other American voters is far more often based on selective TV coverage, statistics, or punditry than actual human contact, regardless of whether they are on the right or left.
The belief that the American people are inherently and consistently wise in their voting decisions has no serious basis. Look at the record of American elections from the president on down from the founding until now and you will see that America’s record is at best mixed. They have elected great presidents, mediocre presidents, bad presidents, and horrible presidents. This is true of every period in American history, from the time only white men had the right to vote down to the present day when a racially diverse group of men and women do.
A lot of people like to blame the two-party system for this. They are wrong. For a start, parties want to get their people elected, and even the “smoke-filled rooms” debated getting people nominated they thought “the people” — i.e., the American voter — would want. Even if we set that aside, European democracies, which have a variety of methods from first-past-the-post to proportional representation, have had no greater success with “the people” uniformly electing the best despite more party options and more control of the government in a parliamentary regime.
Time to Become Truly Virtuous Citizens
It’s past time that the American voters stopped pretending they are entirely powerless and blameless for the current situation. Ultimately, in a democracy, the people are the ones who determine the fate of the nation. And the people must look hard at themselves and work on their own virtue and responsibility to be informed, sober, and realistic voters. Be cognizant of the needs and demands of your fellow citizens, and of the enormous task politicians face in handling the flood of impossible, crazy, contrasting, and often maddening demands voters place on them.
