Do People Vote Democrat Because They’re Stupid?

October 28, 2009 / 10:48 am • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

This Pew research passed along by Mary Katherine Hamm seems to indicate that might be the case:

Under a section called “Partisan Knowledge Gap,” we find Republicans were more knowledgeable by a double-digit factor on four issues. Although the Glenn Beck question is naturally easier for Republicans, the other three issues are basic political knowledge— what “cap-and-trade” means, who’s in control of the House, and who the new Supreme Court Justice is (a question that should perhaps be easier for Democrats). Republicans also led Democrats on identifying the unemployment rate, Fed chairman, Dow level, Max Baucus’ position. Republicans correctly answered an Iran/Israel question and an Afghanistan question more often than Dems. Republicans and Democrats were even on identifying the “public option” as a health-care plan.

If the Democrat voters were informed, they’d be Republicans.

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  • O Bloody Hell

    > If the Democrat voters were informed, they’d be Republicans.

    Nice try. While the knowledge gap does not surprise me, it’s not causative. It’s indicative and associative

    The distinction between Left and Right is not that aspect of intelligence we term “IQ” but what is usually called “Wisdom” or “Common Sense” — the ability to learn from one’s mistakes and from observing the mistakes of others.

    Think about that — how can an intelligent person actually believe that Marxism, collectivism, and so on actually work, given their shoddy history, with no really successful applications at any time, anywhere?

    Simple: you don’t learn from such.

    And I put it to anyone reading this — if you want to find a common factor associated with The Left and Democrats, ask them what previous human experience with communism says about the practice. You will find a hoary list of excuses for why it hasn’t worked, but would work if someone would only just do it “right”…

    Q.E.D.: They cannot learn from experience. If you ever played D&D, the “Leftist” character class would always start with a “W” of “3″.

    Alexis A Gilliland, an SF author, in one of his books, put it remarkably well 30-odd years ago:

    Karl Marx is to economists what Khalil Gibran is to philosophers. In the real world there is no Marxist program, but inside the human brain he tickles the mood centers.
    – Alexis A. Gilliland, ‘Long Shot for Rosinante’ -

    .

  • fuster

    Melissa, do people write “stupid” when they mean “ignorant” because they’re ignorant or because they’re stupid?

  • Naqamel

    Do People Vote Democrat Because They’re Stupid?

    Yes.

  • DaveR

    Ignorant is if you do it the first time because you don’t know.

    Stupid is when you KEEP trying to do it over and over, because this time you think it will be different.

    (What else is that the definition for…?)

  • Naqamel

    because this time you think it will be different.

    (What else is that the definition for…?)

    Insanity.

    Which proves liberals and their “Let’s throw more taxpayer money at it!” method of solving problems is… insanity.

  • fuster

    So you think that Melissa’s gonna keep on mistitling things, Naq?

  • Naqamel

    No, fuster, she’s got it titled right. While some Democrat voters are merely ignorant, the majority of them are just plain stupid.

  • O Bloody Hell

    > No, fuster, she’s got it titled right. While some Democrat voters are merely ignorant, the majority of them are just plain stupid.

    Yeah, but fuster’s a lefty/dem, and is not going to figure that out.

    Which is why fuster brilliantly tried to press the point again though it’d already been thoroughly spiked.

  • Texan99

    I think fuster is right — “ignorant” is a more accurate criticism than “stupid.” Most of the liberal Democrats I know are not stupid. They’re extremely bright about abstract things. What the big-government types are not good at is facing facts when facts contradict emotionally important values. When that kind of conflict comes up, being smart isn’t that helpful. Smart people are good at constructing ways to explain away the facts. Small-government types do it, too, although my strong impression is that big-government types do it more. Of course, it could be that small-government types just do it in areas that I find more harmless from the point of view of public policy.

  • warren

    People who are stupid and people who are extremely well educated both vote Dem. Socialism and Fascism are both pretty ideas that don’t work. However some think they are so smart that they can make them work. Others, even though very intelligent, have defective thought processes. I have known several in that category.