In The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Politics, Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University, allegedly dares to say that not only have economists and political scientists misunderstood the problem of why too much democracy often results in crappy public policies, but they waste time analyzing why most voters are ignorant about political issues. For Caplan, and maybe , (whose articles have increasingly become more proletarian, pedestrian and simplified, that is to say sexy as they ve had to spice up their mix over the years to stay competitive), these professional Ivy League eggheads are incorrectly framing the question they labor in vain to answer. Instead, the GMU man says, in so many other writers words, that intellectuals concerned about the state of democracy, here and abroad, should have long realized: It s not that too many voters are ignorant about the issues, it s that they are simply about the issues, which is an entirely different ball of wax.
Indeed, as is a successful, lifelong quack who, while posing as a doctor, irreparably harms an entire generation of patients. According to the magazine, Caplan asserts that the average voter s wrongheaded ideas generate policies that make society as a whole worse off. And it isn t because The System, (that amorphous grab bag for everything beyond our power with the power to rule and ruin our lives), is broken or isn t working properly.
Nor is it because too many otherwise good people are getting sucked in and distracted by the likes of Bill O Reilly and Bill Maher. Not to mention the ruling gang of Wall Street economic hit men and their K Street front men, snuffing out the public s interest over $1,000 lunches between golfing on the dole in Scotland. In The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Politics, Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University, allegedly dares to say that not only have economists and political scientists misunderstood the problem of why too much democracy often results in crappy public policies, but they waste time analyzing why most voters are ignorant about political issues.
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