Come on people: Vote Smart!

Winston Churchill’s quip about democracy and the average voter is probably truer and harder to remedy today than ever.

For us on the eve of election 2012, it means, among other things—Don’t vote against President Obama because he’s a Muslim. He’s NOT, though that shouldn’t matter. Don’t vote against Mitt Romney because he’s a Mormon. He IS, but that shouldn’t matter either.

Vote on what matters. That’s harder than it sounds, of course, especially these days when it seems like anybody can say anything they want and fact checkers seem mere gnats who want to get in the way with trivial things like actualities. Our news media, splintered now into dozens and dozens of channels, often doesn’t help.  Today we could tweak Churchill’s quip, saying, “The greatest argument against democracy is a 5-minute look at an average newscast.”  Not all newscasts, though I still maintain that American intelligence would go up five points overnight if people stopped watching Fox News on cable and stopped listening to Rush Limbaugh on anything.

“The greatest argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter.”  We hope against hope against the average.  Churchill wasn’t right about everything, though he had a knack for distilling issues in words that seemed like absolute truth.

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One Response to Come on people: Vote Smart!

  1. Warren Seidel says:

    Dr. Guzman, after reading some of your recent posts, I have a question about the idealistic concept of economic equality. Although I agree that there is a growing divide between the rich and the poor, exacerbated by years of a seemingly unchecked Southern border, how can a free society guarantee equal economic outcomes? And where has that system existed for any period of time without massive oppression? Unlike virtually every other country on earth, we have equal opportunity for most people. We are free to pursue our own happiness, thank God. Despite the many faults we had at the beginning of our nation, you must admit that our form of government has led to the largest middle class on the planet. Let’s give ourselves some credit too.

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