American Voters Can Be SO Stupid

I often am quite vocal about how I feel about American voters. One of my pet peeves when it comes to voters is how so many people refuse to look at issues and where a candidate stands, but rather will simply vote for someone simply because they have a "D" or and "R" next to their name. There are people who literally hate someone because they are not of their political party affiliation. I've asked countless people why they voted for someone, and their answer was, "he/she was the right choice." When pushed for specifics, I'm frustrated to discover how many know nothing of the issues at hand, but admit that they simply voted for their party line candidate. It frustrates the daylights out of me how so many are absolutely ignorant of the issues and where candidates position themselves on those issues, so they simply vote their for the party, assuming that makes them the best choice. This week, my argument was proven conclusively.

If you are not aware, there were primary elections held in many states across the United States. There has been a lot of reporting on some of these elections as the results will have a profound impact in the fall general elections. Some of the results are, shall we say, "less reported." The one election result that I want to focus on took place in South Carolina to determine who the Democratic nominee will be to run against the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. The winner of the South Carolina Democratic primary is Alvin Greene. He won with a commanding lead over Vick Rawl, an experienced and well known lawmaker in the state.

So, who is Alvin Greene? That is the question that everyone in South Carolina is asking this week! Alvin Greene is a 32 year old political unknown, who is an unemployed veteran. As the Democratic leaders of South Carolina have scurried to try to discover who this man is, they have been shocked to find that just 8 months ago he was arrested in Columbia, South Carolina for showing explicit pornographic photos to a young female college student and trying to lure her back to his room. As they dug further trying to discover who Alvin Greene is, they discovered that to the best of their knowledge he has never given a political speech, never advertised... not even a single campaign poster was printed or displayed. The state Democratic party spokesperson said, "we have no idea how he won."

When asked about some of the issues that face the nation, Greene has some fantastic answers.

When asked about unemployment, he responded, "I want to put South Carolina back to work. I know about being unemployed." (OK, I'll give him a pass here, even though he has no plan.)

He was asked what would be on his campaign platform. His response was that he was stationed in South Korea and he believes that there should be one Korea, that it would be good for the economy of the United States and South Carolina. (Uh, yeah...)

A reporter asked him about where he stood on healthcare and the economic stimulus packages enacted. He said he was a supporter of them. The reporter asked him for more detailed information about how he felt about TARP, to which Greene responded, "TARP? What's that? I'll have to look into that and get back to you."

The reporter asked him how he felt about the latest issues surrounding Iran and the United Nations. Greene responded, "I think how we're going about, what we're doing is OK, I think ... Look, I have someone beeping on the other line, I have to move on ... I'm exhausted."

OK... I think you get the idea. The man knows little to nothing about the political issues at hand, has no experience, did not campaign... yet he won the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Senator Jim DeMint in the fall elections. HOW does this happen? It appears that Alvin Greene won the election because voters went to the ballot boxes uninformed and they simply looked for the Democrat candidates and on the ballot Alvin Greene appeared (alphabetically) before Vick Rawl, so voters simply checked for the first person on the ballot. Sad, but true.

This is not an isolated incident. It happens all the time. Just a few months ago, here in the Illinois primaries, the candidate who won the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor, Scott Lee Cohen had been arrested for domestic violence against his girl friend, after holding a knife to her throat and threatening to kill her. (For more information on this, read my blog written at that time here.)

There are numerous cases of similar situations.

I implore the American voter to educate yourselves. This nation is in a mess, and things like this illustrate to us exactly why. More than 60% of the Democratic voters cast their vote for a man that they had never heard of. That is absolutely unacceptable.