The late humorist Andy Rooney cut to the chase.
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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.
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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.
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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.
The Homa Files 