"Low-Information" Voters are seen by many as the scourge of modern elections. For the uninitiated, the Low-Info Voter is that voter that decides who to vote for based on popularity, looks, or minimal exposure to news outlets or talk shows. Sometimes, the Low-Info Voter decides based on who other people say they will vote for. In any case, the Low-Info Voter cannot be said to make an informed decision. This is a weakness in the electoral process - for example, Low-Info Voters helped almost legally elect George W. Bush to the presidency in 2000, in large part because they (infamously) "would like to have a beer with him".
These sentiments are relatively uncontroversial. However, another characteristic has been unfairly added to the profile of the Low-Info Voter. It is sometimes suggested that the Low-Info Voter phenomenon is the result of millions of "consciously ignorant" citizens - that is, citizens who are ignorant, know that they are ignorant, and like it that way.
More below the fold.
Like many of you, I have often been angry about the lack of knowledge about the issues and candidates among many voters in every election since I became politically aware at age 12. However, I think it's important to recognize that the Low-Info Voter (LIV) is, to a large extent, a product of a particular environment (late 20th/early 21st century America), and is not a wholly self-created entity.
What I mean to say is this: I don't believe that the LIV phenomenon is the result of millions of "consciously ignorant" citizens. Quite a few things failed before the LIV became the rule rather than the exception. Public education has largely failed, the mainstream media has turned every issue into a he-said/she-said cutdown contest while latching onto conservative lies that masquerade as facts and informed opinion, the economic situation of most Americans has stagnated or worsened, health care is a shambles, and "hot media" (in Marshall McLuhan's brilliant formulation) like television, equipped exclusively with soundbite-sized factoids and opinions which apparently pass for carefully reasoned analysis, has become the main source for many Americans' news. There are dozens of other failures that I feel have led to the dumbing-down of America, and have in turn led to the rise of the LIV. I think one of the most important reasons for this turn away from the light is that many of our most inspiring leaders have been killed (JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Wellstone) or marginalized in other ways (Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Howard Dean). Many people have trouble believing when the people and things they believe in are destroyed.
Luckily, I think an intelligent, unifying, engaging candidate could help change this. Barack Obama has already shown he is capable of mobilizing millions of voters who otherwise might not have voted, or might not have voted Democratic. Anecdotally, I have spoken with dozens of folks who have said that they have never voted before, but that they voted in their state's primary for Obama, and hope to vote for him in the General. Or that they didn't usually care much about politics, but that they feel energized about the direction the country could take under a President Obama. Or that they never in their lives listened to a 40-minute speech on race in the United States, but that they loved Obama's speech on race after the recent hullabaloo over Obama's former pastor - and that they actually listened to the whole thing.
I think Obama as Democratic nominee in '08 could begin to reverse the tide of Low-Info Voters who seem to be taking over the electorate. In the meantime, I think it would be smart to include these low-info voters, rather than set up a false dichotomy between "us" and "them". The typical formulation goes something like this:
"If it wasn't for those damned Low-Information voters, we wouldn't be in the position we are in. They're going to ruin the election for us, and cost us a chance to turn this country around. all they want to do is sit around on their fat, lazy, uneducated asses, buy SUVs, eat cheeseburgers, and do other stupid, uneducated stuff. If only they were as enlightened as me and my friends/colleagues!"
This sort of rhetoric helps nothing (except maybe the self-image of the person screaming it). Instead of divisiveness (which can do nothing but tear us apart as a nation), become part of the solution. The LIV situation in the U.S. can change, but demonizing the LIV does not make them go away, and it certainly doesn't make them more informed. And it's unlikely that they would want to be aligned with people who call them names, mock their lifestyle or accent, or otherwise talk down to them. There are indeed some "consciously ignorant" citizens among us who make up a part of the LIV cohort. But I believe many LIVs could be activated by the right candidate - and I think Obama is that candidate.