The Uninformed Voter

I don't know about you, but I have just about had it up to here with political commentators: Especially with the presidential election upon us. Oh sure, every now and then I am tempted to tear myself away from a light-hearted sitcom to listen to some serious issues discussed. The problem is, every time I do, I begin to doubt my own ability to make political decisions. For instance, one political pundit will lash out at another citing various statistics gathered from financial reports, while the other will quote some obscure elected official in response. At the end of the debate, one is left with a pile of information no ordinary person can remember. This would probably be fine if it weren't for the commentators' instance on a voter being well informed. They often accuse the public of problems in our country because the ordinary citizens are not educating themselves on the issues. As a result, we voters elect individuals based on criteria that are irrelevant; so such talk show hosts may say. In view of this, I feel like a political tree branch, to where my position is blown from one side to another by the winds of rhetoric, presentation and just plain too much information for me to take in.

The more I thought about this issue of being well-informed, I began to wonder whether these 'commentators' and political talk show hosts knew enough themselves to make an informed decision. After all, why is it that they disagree so significantly with other individuals that have, presumably, the same level of knowledge on the issues? Then it dawned on me, maybe I can make political decisions without knowing what the news shows say I ought to know. In fact, it reminded me of the 70s TV show Three's Company. Oftentimes, in the show, one of the three roommates would engage in a conversion that was overheard by the other two roommates. But, since the eavesdroppers would only hear part of the conversion, they would infer all sorts of crazy scenarios from what they heard. Maybe this is what politics can be like. It is possible that since we cannot know the whole story of, say, the economy or other issues, perhaps we can only trust an individual who, being in contact with these problems every day, knows more than we do, or can, about the subject.

I don't want to come across as suggesting that we disregard the importance of knowing the issues. Indeed, there are many political issues, which are cut-and-dry, like social issues and the like. However, let's face it, if we only have part of the story, we can prove, or disprove anything. Sometimes we can only look to a presidential candidate's trustworthiness. If we disagree with their position on an overall vision for our country, that's one thing, but if we over hear what they have done, or will do, by a third party, let's just put our hands over our ears. If that is what some call uninformed, then so be it.