Archive for the ‘Ethics of Voting – Brennan’ Category

Still more: Some people just shouldn’t vote!

November 6, 2022

The late humorist Andy Rooney cut to the chase.
===============

Let’s recap…

A couple of days ago, we posted “Some people just shouldn’t vote!” … triggered by a WSJ opinion piece by Peggy Noonan that argued:

If you’re not serious and don’t take our political life seriously … stay home and vote in good conscience next time.

We bolstered Noonan’s piece with an excerpt from GU Prof. Jason Brennan’s book The Ethics of Voting:

All adult citizens have the right to vote … but that they shouldn’t exercise that right unless they are informed, rational, and aiming for the common good.

Yesterday, we posted a contrary point-of-view expressed by former President Obama:

You’ve got to find Cousin Pookie, he’s sitting on the couch right now watching football.

He hasn’t voted in the last 5 elections.

You’ve got to grab him and tell him to go vote.

===============

Let’s consider one more opinion on the subject.

Back in 1984, Andy Rooney — a culture observer & humorist — presented his point-of-view on 60 Minutes.

Rooney’s take on voting:

“If you don’t know anything about anything refrain from voting”

More specifically, Rooney argued:

You hear a lot of talk about getting out the vote these days.

Local politicians are even using government workers to try and register welfare recipients, for example, and several of the big corporations are pretending they’re “Mister Nice Guy” by telling everyone to get out and vote in commercials. .

The companies are trying to sound patriotic and all-American.

Patriotism is selling very well this year. I don’t want to sound un-American or as though I don’t believe in democracy, but I’d prefer to leave a sleeping vote lie.

If someone has a natural inclination not to vote, because he or she isn’t interested, that’s OK with me.

I don’t want my vote cancelled out by some numbskull who hasn’t thought about the issues.

I hate the thought of having anyone dumber than I am vote.

In Russia, more than 90 percent of the people vote.

Does this make Russia a nice country to live in?

In the United States, not many more than half the eligible voters go to the polls in an election year.

That’s OK with me, too.

My advice to you is this: If you don’t know anything about anything, please stay right where you are.

Don’t get out and vote.

Rooney is probably turning over in his grave these days.

===========
P.S. Unfortunately, CBS moved the video clip behind the Paramount+ pay wall … too bad … it’s a classic the way Rooney delivers the message.

Posted in 2022 election, Ethics of Voting - Brennan, Voting Rights | Leave a Comment »

More: Some people just shouldn’t vote!

November 5, 2022

Former President Obama begs to differ…
============

Yesterday’s we posted “Some people just shouldn’t vote!” … triggered by a WSJ opinion piece by Peggy Noonan that argued:

If you’re not serious and don’t take our political life seriously … stay home and vote in good conscience next time.

We bolstered Noonan’s piece with an excerpt from GU Prof. Jason Brennan’s book The Ethics of Voting:

All adult citizens have the right to vote … but that they shouldn’t exercise that right unless they are informed, rational, and aiming for the common good.

==============

Well, a couple of loyal readers reminded me of a classic contrary point-of-view on the subject.

Raise your hand if you remember, remember former President Obama “Cousin Pookie” get-out-the vote rally cry.

You’ve got to grab your friends. You’ve got to grab your co-workers.

You know, don’t just get the folks you know are going to vote.

You’ve got to find Cousin Pookie, he’s sitting on the couch right now watching football.

He hasn’t voted in the last 5 elections.

You’ve got to grab him and tell him to go vote.

I didn’t say it … Obama did:

click to view video clip
image

Take that Ms. Noonan…

Posted in 2022 election, Ethics of Voting - Brennan, Voting Rights | Leave a Comment »

Some people just shouldn’t vote!

November 4, 2022

Sounds blasphemous, doesn’t it?
===============

In today’s WSJ, the normally sober-minded Peggy Noonan opined:

If you’re serious and take our political life seriously, please go Tuesday to the polls.

And if not, admit it to yourself and try to become a better citizen so you can vote in good conscience next time.

A provocative thought, Peggy …  but not exactly original.

Let’s do a HomaFiles flashback …

==============
First posted Sept. 9, 2012

Every election cycle, I scratch my head and wonder blasphemously whether “one man, one vote” makes sense.

Surveys routinely reveal that a majority of Americans have marginal knowledge of government, politics, and political issues.

Try this: ask folks to explain the difference between the Federal deficit and the Federal debt … ask them where the money that funds, say unemployment benefits, comes from.

Jason Brennan is a rare breed … a libertarian business prof at Georgetown.

His research is at the nexus of ethics and politics.

He wrote an insightful book called The Ethics of Voting that I consider a classic.

image

The essence of Jason’s argument is that all adult citizens have the right to vote … but that they shouldn’t exercise that right unless they are informed, rational, and aiming for the common good.

Let’s drill down on that conclusion…

===============

More specifically, Prof. Brennan argues:

“If a citizen has a right to vote, this means at minimum that she ought to be permitted to vote — no one should stop her or deprive her of the vote — and that her vote must be counted.

However, if citizens do vote, they must vote well, on the basis of sound evidence for what is likely to promote the common good.

That is, in general, they must vote for the common good rather than for narrow self-interest.

Citizens who lack the motive, knowledge, rationality, or ability to vote well should abstain from voting.

Some voters are well informed about what candidates are likely to do.

They know what policies candidates endorse and whether the candidates are sincere.

They know the track records and general trends of different political parties.

Other voters are ignorant of such things.

Another way voters vary is in their degree of rationality .

Some voters are scrupulously rational, while others are irrational.

Some have patently stupid beliefs.

“[Some citizens] are politically engaged, but they are nonetheless often ignorant of or misinformed about the relevant facts or, worse, are simply irrational.

Though they intend to promote the common good, they all too often lack sufficient evidence to justify the policies they advocate.

When they do vote, I argue, they pollute democracy with their votes and make it more likely that we will have to suffer from bad governance.”

* * * * *

Ken’s Take: An interesting perspective that has been constantly on my mind during this election cycle.

At least read the sample chapter … book is available in paperback at Amazon

============

Follow on Twitter @KenHoma

Posted in 2022 election, Elections - General, Ethics of Voting - Brennan | 1 Comment »

Should all people vote … or, just those who are “informed”?

October 23, 2018

Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder whether “one man, one vote” makes sense.

Polls routinely reveal that a majority of Americans have marginal knowledge of government, politics, and political issues.

All citizens should be allowed to vote.

But, should these uninformed citizens vote?

YouGov.com conducted a survey that queried people’s opinions on  that specific issue.

image

=============

Overall, it was a split vote … with a slight plurality (46%) saying that all citizens should vote and 42% saying that only the well-informed should vote.

The results are more interesting if you drill down to the poll’s “internals”:

(more…)

Posted in Ethics of Voting - Brennan, Low information voters, Polls & Surveys | Leave a Comment »

%d bloggers like this: