They're Not Stupid, Stupid!
The elections are over and hard on the heels of the question "why?" comes the answer, "because they're stupid." And I'm not buying it. Or, at least, I'm not buying the idea that Americans are dumber than anyone else.
For a start, words like "stones" and "glass houses" spring to mind. In 2002, a sixth of Dutch voters supported the clearly incompetent Lijst Pim Fortuyn. The Vlaams Blok in Belgium continues to grow. Joerg Haider hasn't gone away. And need I mention Le Pen to anyone? People voted for them for racist reasons. They didn't vote for them because they were stupid, they knew what they were voting for.
My next problem is that as soon as the answer, "stupid" is given, people will complacently accept it and not analyse any further. Of course, the reason why Americans voted for George W Bush is a little more complicated than that. Going by the exit polls, the people who cited 'moral values' as their main motivation for having voted Bush were a big factor in swinging the election his way. (For those who haven't heard, "moral values" is a prune-faced Republican term that means denying women, gays, etc their full rights.)
Lastly, passing the judgment "stupid" distinctly implies that the Bush voters en masse didn't know what they were doing. It almost hints that they're less responsible because of it. But they knew who they were voting for as much as any other voter on the planet.
For a start, words like "stones" and "glass houses" spring to mind. In 2002, a sixth of Dutch voters supported the clearly incompetent Lijst Pim Fortuyn. The Vlaams Blok in Belgium continues to grow. Joerg Haider hasn't gone away. And need I mention Le Pen to anyone? People voted for them for racist reasons. They didn't vote for them because they were stupid, they knew what they were voting for.
My next problem is that as soon as the answer, "stupid" is given, people will complacently accept it and not analyse any further. Of course, the reason why Americans voted for George W Bush is a little more complicated than that. Going by the exit polls, the people who cited 'moral values' as their main motivation for having voted Bush were a big factor in swinging the election his way. (For those who haven't heard, "moral values" is a prune-faced Republican term that means denying women, gays, etc their full rights.)
Lastly, passing the judgment "stupid" distinctly implies that the Bush voters en masse didn't know what they were doing. It almost hints that they're less responsible because of it. But they knew who they were voting for as much as any other voter on the planet.