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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