Demo-Blog: Voters are Stupid

How to explain that voters will not only tolerate drilling off America's shores and in our shale, but actually demand it?

According to Demo-blog What's Required, the reason is that voters are (a) wrong because they are (b) stupid:

First: while the public does indeed favor expanded domestic drilling, there are two forces at work here that can’t be discounted before the GOP uses a new data point as an excuse to keep the economy thriving for the top half of 1% of us. First: we have an angry electorate. That means they’re more ready to lie to pollsters than ever before, act completely out of character in the voting booth, and generally be as hard to govern as a sack of cats. They’re not telling you that you have to drill, really–they’re telling you that the percentage of their income that is spent getting from point a to point b has to go down. Do it with drilling, do it with electric cars, do it with flying carpets, but get it done, and now (and we will point out that electric cars would get it done BEFORE drilling). Second: the American public, even if they’re not being overspecific like they are here, can be really, really [expletive deleted] wrong.

Good thing we have enlightened, progressive intellectuals to set us straight.

More is at play than our differences on energy policy. It is an axiom of liberalism that the common man is stupid. This is especially true of poor people; it's why liberals think they are poor. This sense of elitism causes "progressives" to tie all sorts of strings to government entitlement, because they don't trust the poor dumb people to make wise choices as to how to spend the taxpayers' money without guidance from bureaucrats. (The bureaucrats, in turn need guidance from the Demo-blogs.)

Conservatives, in contrast, believe that most people are smart enough to act in their self-interest and make good decisions. (And to the extent they don't, they should not be rewarded with even more government entitlements.) That's why we believe that American inventors and entrepreneurs can make our country energy independent in the long run -- but only if government gets out of the way.

We Can Pick Our Own Good Causes

Kentuckians don't need the state government to designate which charity should be the object of our generosity. Consequently, neither of the charities seeking to get the $10 from "In God We Trust" license plates should win this debate. Let the drivers decide as a matter of individual conscience.

John Cheves has been following the legislation for Pol Watchers,

The Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday approved House Bill 207 and sent it to the full Senate. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, would let Kentucky motorists buy a specialty plate emblazoned with the words “In God We Trust.” Ten dollars from each plate would go to the state’s veterans’ trust fund.

Gooch's bill has drawn protests from a nonprofit group, Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK), that applied late last year to the Transportation Cabinet for its own “In God We Trust” plates to raise money for its anti-pornography efforts. ROCK alleges that lawmakers swiped its idea and now stand to divert millions of dollars in potential revenue.

Both sides of this debate implicitly assert that God would want that $10 donated to their charity. Helping veterans and fighting pornography -- both are worthy causes, competing for scarce dollars against other worthy causes.

The license plate about to be released, however, does not read: "God Loves Veterans!" or "God Hates Pornography!" though both sentiments may well be true. The disputed tag reads "In God We Trust." That's one God, but how and when and to what extent we trust Him varies greatly from person to person. State coercion or entanglement on matters of altruism and faith undermines respect for both state and charity.

So Kentucky should follow Indiana's lead and let drivers purchase the "In God We Trust" license plates for no additional charge. Then drivers can donate $10 or however much they want to whomever they want, as the Spirit leads them.