Every election cycle, the airwaves, television, newspapers, and every other form of communication get filled with entreaties from (dubiously) well intentioned folk begging people to vote. They act as if this is a universally good thing.

Well, they are wrong.

Anyone that has to be cajoled into voting probably shouldn't be voting in the first place. Anyone who cares so little about the process that they are not naturally inclined to vote probably shouldn't be voting. Most importantly, anyone who is clueless about the issues DEFINITELY should not be voting.

I've been wanting to post about this for a long time as it is something that really bothers me. The problem is not too few people voting. The problem is too many uninformed and uneducated people voting.

Uninformed and uneducated voters are the types of voters most easily swayed by political chicanery, smoke screens, empty sound bites, pie-in-the-sky false promises, and other trickery. They are also the types most easily bought off by one politician or another's promise to bring home some pork directed at that type of voter.

We should not be encouraging such people to vote. We should be encouraging such people to stay home and let the grown ups make the decisions.

Do you let a 3 year old decide what they will eat for every meal? Heck no. All they'd eat is ice cream and candy.

I came across an article today that was the final impetus that prompted my post.

Stay Home; Don't vote.

Ilya Somin, a professor at the George Mason School of Law, published a study in the Cato Institute's magazine about voter ignorance that offers a peek into the empty spaces between many voters' ears.

75% of voters apparently were completely unaware of the fact that the federal government adopted a huge prescription drug benefit as part of Medicare during the term of President Bush. Fully 65 percent did not know that the government had passed a ban on partial birth abortions.

Sixty-one percent thought, incorrectly, that there had been a net job loss in 2004. Only 32 percent were aware that Social Security is one of the two largest expenditure areas in the federal government.

Only 22 percent knew that the current unemployment rate is lower than the average for the past 30 years.

Political observers make much of swings in voter sentiment -- like the elevation of Republicans to majority status in the House of Representatives in 1994. Yet Somin reports that in the election of 2002, only 32 percent of voters knew that the Republican Party controlled the House. Hmmm.
Honestly, our nation would be better served if people who didn't have the time or interest to learn about the issues just stayed home.