Counters, Not Thinkers

Steve Kornacki at Salon starts an article today by saying that “The most recent data shows that 75 percent of voters say they want the federal government to send money to the states…” for hiring teachers, policemen and such, and goes on to imply that that statistic is sufficient to prove that the bill in question is a valuable bill that should be passed by Congress.

I’m inclined to doubt his assertion since there is ample evidence to the effect that voters don’t always pick the best solution. They approved, by an 80% margin, of going to war in Iraq, for instance. They did not elect George Bush the first time, but they did the second time, after he started a disastrous war in Iraq.

Are we seriously going to turn for decision on governmental policy to a mass of people, of which only 39% believe in the theory of evolution? A group of people of which a significant percentage believe that man and dinosaurs coexisted and that God faked all those fossils in order just to fuck with us?

Of course the voters want the federal government to send money to the states. They live in the states. When have the voters ever said to the federal government, “No, don’t send us any money.” Voters have always wanted the federal government to send money to the states.

I don’t know about you, but I know for sure that I don’t want those idiots deciding how my tax money gets spent. Congress isn’t much better, I mean, look at who elected them, but there is at least a chance that somebody might talk some sense into them.

It won’t be Steve Kornacki, or Barack Obama for that matter, both of whom think that we elect representation to do nothing but read polls. If all that our representatives are going to do is vote in accordance with polls, why do we bother with all of these stupid debates and speeches? Why do we care what Candidate Fuddpucker’s opinion on abortion is when all he’s going to do is read a poll to determine how to vote on the subject?

It does take a lot of pressure off in November of next year. We don’t need to listen to debates on philosophies or theories of government, we just need to give everybody a reading test. They don’t even need to understand really big numbers, they just need to be able to count up to one hundred.