John Stossel, who sports a very amazingly terrible mustache, recently did a special report on whether new voters were informed enough to be trusted with ballots.
My friends at the Oregon Bus Project went and found middle-aged voters in a high-end shopping mall and found that, much like Stossel's new voters, they rarely knew who Joe Biden or Justice Ginsburg was in a photo. Even worse, none of them know who Mos Def is (!):
Obviously, this is all a bunch of crap. And for a member of the media to spend time talking about the uninformed public is borderline hilarious. Hell -- I think I'd be able to name Ruth Bader Ginsburg on sight, but one of the funny things about the Supreme Court is that they still don't allow photos or videos to be taken during proceedings. Why would a typical American recognize all 9 Justices on sight?
Bottom-line, being able to ID prominent political leaders in a photo lineup or knowing exactly how many states or Senators there are is not very relevant information for voting, even if some of us consider it baseline knowledge.
Democracy works in part on the basis that we reach acceptable group decisions by allowing individuals to make decisions based on what they care about. For John "Full Mustache/Empty Head" Stossel to presume he knows better than others what the proper knowledge they should have to make a decision in an election is utterly ridiculous.
It's like insisting that all Americans should have memorized MPG statistics before purchasing cars. Fuel efficiency is something I care about and possibly even a good community goal to be reached through raising standards. But it may not be particularly relevant for someone who has different needs and means than me.
Trust a libertarian to fail to understand how the wisdom of crowds works.
