Stupid Voters, Part Two

by: John Emerson

Sat Dec 19, 2009 at 13:00

1.

Last week I put up a piece on the oft-heard liberal meme “People vote for the Republicans because people are stupid”. Ever since I first started thinking about the Stupid Voter meme I’ve been seeing it everywhere (for example here, here and -- comments to the previous link -- here.) For a lot of liberals the Stupid Voter explanation of Republican success is a self-evident, unthought truth. However, in reality the Stupid Voter meme is a harmful illusion and a source of some of the Democratic Party’s big weaknesses. Today I’d like to quickly summarize last week’s argument, while also developing it further and revising it in certain ways. (Readers who find my summary here too sketchy can go to the original here; my data and links to my sources are also included there).