I heard something on the radio that took me back to my freshman year of college. No, not the drinking and partying, but my Political Science 101 class, taught by an Italian prof (can't remember his name) who talked for an entire semester about Elitism. His premise: all forms of government boil down to rule by the elite class. I did well in the class and went on my way, but the core question still sometimes resurfaces in my head: should countries resign to being run by the elite or should we fight for democracies in which the non-elite, the people, if you will, decide their fate?
Yesterday, the answer to this question was clear to me. No. The people should not be allowed to decide their fate. Why? Because the people make decisions based on heresay, rumors even, rather than on facts. The people vote for the name that feels the safest, for whatever reason that may be.
Take for example, the Pennsylvania democrat being interviewed yesterday on NPR. She didn't like either of the candidates, but supposed Hillary was the better option. She certainly wasn't going to vote for Obama. "Why?" asked the reporter, trying to get an informed, issue-based soundbite for his story. "Well, for one thing, I heard he's a Muslim," she said.
And there you have it. Democracy at its best. Uninformed voters making decisions based on rumors and lies. I don't know how far they had to look to find someone who hadn't heard the corrected story about that particular rumor, but I have to believe it wasn't far.
