Voter Ignorance

David Weigel makes an interesting argument for liberals who are frustrated by the clear misbeliefs of pro-Republican voters.

_ _ _

Most voter ignorance, if it was cured by logic and reason and long sessions of NPR, would be replaced by the same voter preferences, justified in different ways. There are Mississippi Republicans who hate Obama because they think he’s a Muslim. Take that away, and they’ll hate him because they’re conservatives and he isn’t. Only 11 percent of Mississippi whites voted for Barack Obama, but only 14 percent voted for John Kerry. These aren’t people who’ll change their minds if they fully grokked the president’s bio.

That is why ignorant voters don’t get to swing a presidential election.

-- David Weigel

_ _ _

I am not so sure about that. I think we could take it another level. Why should a poor white person vote for Republicans who will only pass pro-plutocratic laws? I think race still gets in the picture. Weigel points out that only 14 percent of Mississippi whites voted for white Kerry, but the thing is, they voted against Kerry in overwhelming numbers because they understood his policies to be pro-black, even if he was not black himself. Obama just sort of makes the case clearer for them.

I would even extend my argument onto religious issues, which are playing an even more prominent role during this campaign cycle. When it comes to the narrow literalism of the Bible, and the insistence on using the law to enforce such substantive beliefs on non-believers, I would argue that this is less about faith and more about ignorance. To be absolutely clear, I am not saying that faith is ignorance, but only that faith does not absolve one of ignorance.

Voter Ignorance

David Weigel makes an interesting argument for liberals who are frustrated by the clear misbeliefs of pro-Republican voters.

_ _ _

Most voter ignorance, if it was cured by logic and reason and long sessions of NPR, would be replaced by the same voter preferences, justified in different ways. There are Mississippi Republicans who hate Obama because they think he’s a Muslim. Take that away, and they’ll hate him because they’re conservatives and he isn’t. Only 11 percent of Mississippi whites voted for Barack Obama, but only 14 percent voted for John Kerry. These aren’t people who’ll change their minds if they fully grokked the president’s bio.

That is why ignorant voters don’t get to swing a presidential election.

-- David Weigel

_ _ _

I am not so sure about that. I think we could take it another level. Why should a poor white person vote for Republicans who will only pass pro-plutocratic laws? I think race still gets in the picture. Weigel points out that only 14 percent of Mississippi whites voted for white Kerry, but the thing is, they voted against Kerry in overwhelming numbers because they understood his policies to be pro-black, even if he was not black himself. Obama just sort of makes the case clearer for them.

I would even extend my argument onto religious issues, which are playing an even more prominent role during this campaign cycle. When it comes to the narrow literalism of the Bible, and the insistence on using the law to enforce such substantive beliefs on non-believers, I would argue that this is less about faith and more about ignorance. To be absolutely clear, I am not saying that faith is ignorance, but only that faith does not absolve one of ignorance.

Looking to Leave Afghanistan

The epitaph of our Sisyphean decade of two agonizing wars was written last year by then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates: “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to send a big American land army into Asia, or into the Middle East or Africa, should have his head examined.”

-- Maureen Dowd at The New York Times

So much blood and treasure lost in that wasteland. Osama bin Laden may be assassinated, but he really did get a lot from his big 9/11 attack. What have we done to ourselves? Maybe we needed an enemy too badly.

Looking to Leave Afghanistan

The epitaph of our Sisyphean decade of two agonizing wars was written last year by then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates: “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to send a big American land army into Asia, or into the Middle East or Africa, should have his head examined.”

-- Maureen Dowd at The New York Times

So much blood and treasure lost in that wasteland. Osama bin Laden may be assassinated, but he really did get a lot from his big 9/11 attack. What have we done to ourselves? Maybe we needed an enemy too badly.

1984 (2,7) When His Father Disappeared

Winston’s dream vividly calls to mind that rabid time of his childhood amidst war and privations and the falling of the iron curtain.

_ _ _

His father had disappeared some time earlier, how much earlier he could not remember. He remembered better the rackety, uneasy circumstances of the time: the periodical panics about air-raids and the sheltering in Tube stations, the piles of rubble everywhere, the unintelligible proclamations posted at street corners, the gangs of youths in shirts all the same colour, the enormous queues outside the bakeries, the intermittent machine-gun fire in the distance -- above all, the fact that there was never enough to eat. He remembered long afternoons spent with other boys in scrounging round dustbins and rubbish heaps, picking out the ribs of cabbage leaves, potato peelings, sometimes even scraps of stale breadcrust from which they carefully scraped away the cinders; and also in waiting for the passing of trucks which travelled over a certain route and were known to carry cattle feed, and which, when they jolted over the bad patches in the road, sometimes spilt a few fragments of oil-cake.

When his father disappeared, his mother did not show any surprise or any violent grief, but a sudden change came over her. She seemed to have become completely spiritless. It was evident even to Winston that she was waiting for something that she knew must happen. She did everything that was needed -- cooked, washed, mended, made the bed, swept the floor, dusted the mantelpiece -- always very slowly and with a curious lack of superfluous motion, like an artist's lay-figure moving of its own accord. Her large shapely body seemed to relapse naturally into stillness. For hours at a time she would sit almost immobile on the bed, nursing his young sister, a tiny, ailing, very silent child of two or three, with a face made simian by thinness. Very occasionally she would take Winston in her arms and press him against her for a long time without saying anything. He was aware, in spite of his youthfulness and selfishness, that this was somehow connected with the never-mentioned thing that was about to happen.

-- 1984

1984 (2,7) When His Father Disappeared

Winston’s dream vividly calls to mind that rabid time of his childhood amidst war and privations and the falling of the iron curtain.

_ _ _

His father had disappeared some time earlier, how much earlier he could not remember. He remembered better the rackety, uneasy circumstances of the time: the periodical panics about air-raids and the sheltering in Tube stations, the piles of rubble everywhere, the unintelligible proclamations posted at street corners, the gangs of youths in shirts all the same colour, the enormous queues outside the bakeries, the intermittent machine-gun fire in the distance -- above all, the fact that there was never enough to eat. He remembered long afternoons spent with other boys in scrounging round dustbins and rubbish heaps, picking out the ribs of cabbage leaves, potato peelings, sometimes even scraps of stale breadcrust from which they carefully scraped away the cinders; and also in waiting for the passing of trucks which travelled over a certain route and were known to carry cattle feed, and which, when they jolted over the bad patches in the road, sometimes spilt a few fragments of oil-cake.

When his father disappeared, his mother did not show any surprise or any violent grief, but a sudden change came over her. She seemed to have become completely spiritless. It was evident even to Winston that she was waiting for something that she knew must happen. She did everything that was needed -- cooked, washed, mended, made the bed, swept the floor, dusted the mantelpiece -- always very slowly and with a curious lack of superfluous motion, like an artist's lay-figure moving of its own accord. Her large shapely body seemed to relapse naturally into stillness. For hours at a time she would sit almost immobile on the bed, nursing his young sister, a tiny, ailing, very silent child of two or three, with a face made simian by thinness. Very occasionally she would take Winston in her arms and press him against her for a long time without saying anything. He was aware, in spite of his youthfulness and selfishness, that this was somehow connected with the never-mentioned thing that was about to happen.

-- 1984

Lolita

It's a pity they have not come out with a good DVD edition. I wonder if they will show it on cable again in my lifetime. Too controversial? Heh, yeah, I guess.

Lolita

It's a pity they have not come out with a good DVD edition. I wonder if they will show it on cable again in my lifetime. Too controversial? Heh, yeah, I guess.

Mr. Badass

What a prince among men!

Mr. Badass

What a prince among men!