Can Voters Make the Decision to Pull Out of Iraq?
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Posted: 01/10/07
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Can Voters Make the Decision to Pull Out of Iraq?
By Thomas E. Brewton
If voters are well enough informed to make the complex decision about
pulling out of Iraq, why do we need liberal-socialist-progressive
government to tell them how to live their daily lives?
Liberal Republicans and liberal Democrats say that the American
people voted in the latest Congressional elections to pull our troops
out of Iraq, sooner rather than later. Is that the whole story, and
is it a valid basis for forming life-or-death foreign policy?
On the one hand, liberals are, in effect, adopting Ross Perot's idea
that all voters should have computers and internet connections that
would permit continuous referenda on every policy matter before
Congress.
On the other hand, liberals' stock-in-trade is the firm conviction
that voters need to be protected from their follies and must be
coddled and comforted by government, from cradle to grave. Why does
government have to keep such purportedly well informed voters from
eating the wrong things, driving the wrong automobiles, and borrowing
money on terms they can't meet?
If voters are well enough informed to weigh the complex interactions
among the United States, the EU, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Saudi
Arabia, and other Middle Eastern nations, why were Florida and Ohio
voters, as Democrats claimed, unable to find polling places and
unable to fathom the complexities of voting, once in the booth?
It will require a master sophist to argue that these two pictures of
human nature are not contradictory.
Carried to its logical conclusion, relying entirely on public opinion-
of-the-moment to decide policy issues would obviate the need for
Congress altogether. It would instead necessitate polling the voters
every day – should we impose higher tariffs on Chinese imports?
should we attack Al Queda terrorists in Somalia? How should we react
to Hugo Chavez's actions in Venezuela? Should we declare war against
Mexico to stop illegals? Should we bomb Iran if the ayatollahs
continue pursuit of nuclear weapons? and so on.
If you think that voter participation is depressingly low in
elections now, just wait until you see the vanishingly low
participation rates in such direct voting every day on all policy
issues. Liberals would be compelled to revert to current reliance
upon public opinion polls, which are based on sampling, at most,
about 2 out of every 100,000 voters (which amounts to less than three-
thousandths of one percent of voter rolls).
But not to worry. We know that opinion polls, formed by media hype,
are always accurate assessors and predictors, as demonstrated by the
BCS bowl game between No. 1-ranked Ohio State and Florida.
"The underlying assumption is that public opinion, expressed in
elections or opinion polls, in all cases represents truth and
wisdom. Such is seldom the case when complex policy matters are the subject of those opinions."
Thomas E. Brewton is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc.
The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of
writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets.
His weblog is THE VIEW FROM 1776
http://www.thomasbrewton.com/
Email comments to viewfrom1776@thomasbrewton.com
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