You, dear reader, review this writing for a reason. If you’re a conservative Republican perhaps you want to read friendly commentary. If you’re a leftist perhaps you’re a masochist. If you follow Mr. Trump’s populism, well, you probably can’t read at all but are intrigued by the funny shapes on the page.
Regardless, you take an interest in the affairs of the day. But understand, you are in the extreme minority. Most people, irrespective of party or ideology, vote like you or I might buy a pack of batteries or Mentos right before we check out at the grocery.
You know, you’re putting your purchases on the belt and you happen to notice some small item that catches your fancy. So you toss it on the belt and think little more of it. Retail types call this a point of sale (POS) decision.
The vast majority of Americans take little heed of issues in a political campaign. Trust me on this. I ran a lot of campaigns over a twenty year career as a political operative and I rarely won on issues. Instead they get to a voting booth, or sit down to fill in a mailed ballot, and briefly conjur up the image of various candidates and how much that image comports to their own prejudices and biases. Then they simply confirm their own POS momentary views by supporting this person or that.
For Republicans the motivating factors of support are tradition, conservatism, and patriotism. For Democrats it is change for the sake of change, redistributionist economics, and a deep abiding hatred for themselves and this country. For Trumpists it is solely a fanatical allegiance to the former president.
Slice it any way you like and you come to understand that detailed things like party platforms are meaningless. One, nobody reads them or follows them. More importantly, they are full of ideas and pronouncements, some sound and some loony, that the average person cannot and doesn’t want to comprehend. That would make them think in more than a quick haphazard fashion. And in a society with a failed public education system serious critical thinking became passe for most citizens decades ago.
Of course, we could remedy this by instituting simple voting tests. Nothing complicated. Like a driving test measures knowledge of the rules of the road, you might ask a prospective voter how many senators serve in Congress. Or who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Maybe ask them where the national capital is located. Yes, that easy.
In doing so I feel confident we would cull 40 percent, at least, of morons off the voting rolls. Will this ever happen in modern day America? Nope. The hue and cry from the moron lobby, leftists and populists, would be deafening and thus the system is incapable of reform. Thus voting will remain a POS process, in both the retail sense and the more colloquial meaning.