After every election, the questions I usually hear from half of the electorate are: What is wrong with people? How can there be so many idiots? With everything that was going on, how was it not a landslide? There is a lot of mystery not only of what drives voting behavior, but how people think in the most basic ways. There is a huge lack of understanding between different groups of people. Not only do people not understand why more people don’t think like them, they find time and time again that predictions based on how they think others think are spectacularly wrong. The truth is none of us even knows how others think, let alone why. Unfortunately, I’m still working on the answers myself, but in this post I describe several theories I have heard. Discussing them ought to help point us in the right direction.

Gridlock Forever

As is always the case with these things, I am skeptical of the methodology, but if this is true, it is disturbing.

Nature Makes Her Own Laws

Ah, the futility of environmental regulation…

Declaring Independence From The Republicrats

It’s about time.

Corporate Government

It seems that lobbyists are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corporate influence over government. Campaign finance reform won’t fix it. The entire system needs an overhaul. The question is: to what?

More Alike Than You Think

We are told that the Tea Party is “conservative” and Occupy Wall Street is “liberal,” but are they really that different? It makes you wonder who the moderates are…

No, They Can’t

John Stossel has written a brilliant, interesting, easy-to-read book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand why libertarians think the way they do about economics, health care, education, drugs, the “marketplace of ideas,” and more. I leave you with this anecdote from page 178 of how some governments take censorship in the name of protecting us to ridiculous extremes.

“I wish future lawyers understood that America is a special country because we have free speech. In Ecuador, it’s illegal to criticize the tax system. In many Islamic countries, enforcers wander the streets on the lookout for blasphemous conversations. China’s Communist Party not only limits criticism of the government, but recently they even banned stories about time travel. A party official explained that such stories ‘have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism, and reincarnation.’”

It can’t be real. It’s like something from a Monty Python skit…

Restoring Love

I keep hearing that believers in limited government are selfish and don’t value community. This is far from the case. In fact, many recognize that it is selfishness that leads to crony capitalism, which leads to lobbyists, which leads to big government, which leads to the loss of liberty and prosperity for everyone – and they care about the liberty and prosperity of others. Glenn Beck’s audience is planning on strengthening the community by donating food (which is against the law in some cities).

Independents voted for Obama in droves. Now many of them regret it. Obama's approval rating continues to plummet. They say that they were surprised: that he either changed or was deceptive as a candidate. Who could have known that he would be so incompetent, so ready to pull dirty political tricks, and so borderline marxist? Hardcore republicans claim to have known - and they often have little nice to say about those they see as being so easily decieved.