George Rebane

[This piece was recorded as my regular bi-weekly commentary on KVMR-FM 89.5 and broadcast on 1 October 2010.]

There is more to be said about John Kerry’s assessment of voters earlier this week.  For openers, it’s rare that Senator Kerry and I agree, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to balance the record.  In a measured and thoughtful statement Kerry stated that, “We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or truth or what’s happening.”  These words came across as a lament on how the Democrats’ message on the economy was being received, or not, by the constituency that powered the liberal landslide of 2008.

Kerry’s words were immediately taken to task by both the right and the left, but for different reasons.  Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review, lambasted Kerry for underestimating the intelligence of and talking down to the American voter.  It was a lightly veiled outrage designed to highlight Kerry’s recent problems of being viewed as a Boston patrician who is used to surveying the country from the Palatine heights.  Lowry’s implied point was that the American voter is plenty smart, at least as smart as needed to see through progressive policies designed to fundamentally transform the country.

From the progressive website Salon, it was author Rick Shenkman who wrote that “Kerry is right: Americans are ignorant”, and then advised the senator, “But that doesn't make it smart politics for him to say so — in an election year, no less!”  Mr Shenkman also runs what is advertised as a non-partisan “social networking site expressly designed for politics”.  So he should know when he peels off a pile of voter knowledge statistics showing how ignorant the rank and file voter is.  I tend to agree with Shenkman because research from both the federal government and several prestigious institutes give solid backing to such reports.

But Shenkman’s citations were limited to the more forgivable civics side of the knowledge ledger – such as not knowing the basic structure of our government, or the fundamentals of American history.  He correctly states that knowledgeable voters comprise a small minority of those who can cast ballots.  But there are more serious holes in what the voters know, and that are relevant to how they will vote for hope and change.

For example, in a recent study the Zogby International Surveys working with George Mason University crunched the numbers and concluded that “self-identified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics.”, or more unequivocally “The left flunks Econ 101.”  From looking at the numbers, this was a kind assessment.  Adding to this, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life compiled some ‘Beliefs of Demographic, Political, and Religious Groups’.  These data reveal that liberals are twice as likely as conservatives to believe in ideas such as ‘spiritual energy’ and ‘astrology’.

Coming back to the good senator from Massachusetts, I would be very surprised if he is not intimately aware of the intellectual capacity and beliefs of his constituents, in addition to those of the leftwing voting block nationwide.  Heads-up politicians spend a lot of money being current on such information.  Given that, it is difficult to see what Kerry is worried about when it comes to getting out his party’s message to liberals on topics such as national debt, deficits, who should pay taxes, entitlements, who creates jobs, and the sources of wealth and its redistribution.

The Democratic Party has always enjoyed an advantage here with their voters, and there is no reason to believe that this will not continue in November.  The only concern might come from outfits like the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which this June reported that Americans divide themselves into 40% conservatives, 36% moderates, and 22% liberals.

This is George Rebane and I also expand on these and other issues in my Union columns, on NCTV, and on georgerebane.com where this transcript appears.  These opinions are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.