Sex, drugs, rock and roll. It’s a winning combination, along with ignorance, and it may just keep the liberals and left in power, despite a few possible setbacks such as the 2014 midterms.
It used to be that ignorant young people didn’t much care about voting, so that acted as a natural bar to them exerting too great an influence on elections. But Obama was able to muster a campaign of getting out the vote that was wildly successful in getting enough of them to the polls in 2008 and 2012 to tip the balance in his favor.
In 2008, this was done mostly through projecting himself as an inspirational and transformational persona. In 2012 the mechanism was more fear of the Other, those dread Republicans/conservatives bent on taking away the sex, drugs, and rock and roll, as well as the financial governmental largesse (as opposed to prosperity) that might accrue from the left remaining in power.
The success of all of these efforts relies in large part on keeping the young voters dumb as well as happy with their pleasures. The “dumb” part apparently isn’t all that hard to do if you take over the educational and entertainment systems, weaken the family and other institutions that used to teach values, and control the press.
Here’s some strong evidence that the efforts to do this have been hugely successful. Read it and weep:
Last week, MRCTV’s Dan Joseph went to American University to give the student body a little general knowledge quiz.
When asked if they could name a SINGLE U.S. senator, the students blanked. Also, very few knew that each state has two senators. The guesses were all over the map, with some crediting each state with twelve, thirteen, and five senators.
The students passed the pop culture part of the exam with flying colors, as one might expect. This wasn’t a scientific survey, of course, and there were a few who knew the answers, but how many senators each state has is the sort of fact that not a single college student should be missing. However, as one of the interviewees said, “I’m not big into the ‘America’ thing.”
The question about how many senators is so elementary that students should be learning it—and much more about our government—in grade school. If college students at a relatively reputable university (called, ironically, “American”) don’t know the answer, they certainly can be assumed to be ignorant as well of most of the Founders’ brilliant designs for our government and its checks and balances on tyranny.
One of the foundations of liberty is an informed electorate, and if that is lacking, tyranny will almost undoubtedly emerge. No accident, either.
[Neo-neocon is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at neo-neocon.]
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Comments
Seems like I keep reading about how the younger population is also unhappy (disenfranchised?) with both parties. A lot of their political motivation is stirred by more libertarian ideas. Just look at how successful Ron Paul was – a craggy old white haired guy far from “cool” – in getting a strong youth niche following.
I suspect the GOP may always struggle at getting a strong youth vote percentage. But they can certainly quench the fire by pointing to the issues that drive the youth away from the Dems in a growing number. Surely that is part of the calculation in dwelling on Obamacare and the debt.
Libertarian implies a higher level of independence. The prerequisite for liberty is a capacity for self-moderating, responsible behavior. The demand for abortion and similar, services by “libertarians”, libertines (aka “liberals”), and “progressives”, is evidence that some/many women and men lack that ability. The “youth” need to stop rebelling and address causes for the resurrection of left-wing (i.e. authoritarian) ideology.
They say “Ignorance is bliss” so we must be reaching utopia or, literally, “no place.”
All we need now is more time off work, more pot, more heroin and more give-away government goodies and then we can relax in front of our social media device with an espresso in full European leisure.
Tyranny ensures us that we do not have to think. Ergo we now have ‘higher education institutions’ filled with the frivolous courses that payroll ‘academics’ who pettifog and spew unwarranted CO2 into our precious atmosphere of…utopia.
I AM into America as any free thinking person should be.
This story has been around a while, and will likely end well (for the kids involved), although sadly without the principal being fired.
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/03/25/endgame-girl-suspended-from-school-for-shaving-head-in-solidarity-with-classmate-who-has-cancer/
What kind of training are our “educators” (they surely do not qualify as teachers) getting, to run our schools in such an irresponsible fashion? Why are we getting weirdos in these responsible, well-paid positions?
There was also a lot of voter fraud and cheating going on.
This guy does the videos often, usually at George Mason U. Glad he’s branched out to American U to give a little “diversity” and show that the ignorance of the college-age students is apparently quite vast. (I know they selectively choose who to put in these videos – but if this many don’t know these answers, it’s BAD for our nation’s future.)
Education in the US, after all the BILLIONS spent, is failing our children. They are lambs to the slaughter.
Taking us with them.
Old Ben Franklin stated that they have given us a republic. The question is can we keep it? The forecast is not looking good.
Maybe we need to return enfranchisement to landowners or folks who’ve passed a political literacy test. Otherwise, we get tyranny of the
massesstupid.Time for the GOP to buy sign space facing every college campus, with the message: “Hey, kids! TODAY you owe the US government [lifetime individual taxes to pay off the national debt].”
But will they? Hah!