The Curse Of The LO/INFO Voter ... J. D. Longstreet

The Curse Of The LO/INFO Voter
A Commentary b J. D. Longstreet
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The LO/INFO voter -- sometimes referred to as LIV's -- are a curse on America.  It is they who are driving America's "post constitution" government.  They, however, are SO low-information they have no idea their influence may lie at the root of the problems America faces today.

Now.  Who are these LO/Info voters?  What is a Lo/Info voter?  Let's take a closer look. 

I will guarantee when we finish here you will KNOW who a Lo/Info voter is -- and -- you might be surprised to learn that YOU fall within their ranks.  Not to worry.  Most of us have been, at one time in our lives, card carrying members of the Lo/Info voter classification.

Let's begin with the obvious.  Lo/Info voters are people who may vote, but who are, generally speaking, poorly (or badly) informed about politics.  That fact alone speaks volumes concerning the inherent weakness of a democracy.  It can certainly be considered an important reason the Founders of America decided that a Representative Republic was the way to go for this fledgling country and it's government.

The LIV's could not define their political ideology if their lives depended upon it.  As a rule, with some exceptions, of course, they have no political ideology of their own.  Instead, they choose candidates that are, for whatever reason, appealing to them.  It could be as simple as the physical appearance of the candidate. In fact, it often IS the visage of the candidate.  For instance, America's last balding President was Dwight Eisenhower.

Having no coherent political ideology the LIV's are more likely to be swing voters, and they will split a ticket in a heartbeat.

Some years ago, I was conversing with a young man about an upcoming Presidential Election.  He volunteered that he probably would not vote because his vote didn't really make a difference anyway.  I tried to convince him, as best I could, that he was wrong.  But as the conversation went on I began to understand that this young man knew squat about America's political system. He was married, a high school graduate with possibly some college, a veteran, gainfully employed, and dumb as a post about politics in America. He was, and I suspect still is, a LIV. 

I have a friend, a middle-aged government employee, very intelligent, with more than one college degree, married, very successful in his chosen field, who, when asked his opinion on something or other the government is proposing in Congress, responds with:  "I don't worry about stuff like that.  There's nothing I can do about it. So why worry?"

Do either of these examples remind you of some of your friends and acquaintances?

These are LO/INFO voters ... and they are dangerous to America.

America was very carefully designed for  people who were educated, moral, and involved in the politics of the country. Over the two and a half centuries America has been on the scene we have seen what can happen to her and her government as fewer and fewer Americans deign to take part in the governing process.

By taking part, I mean not just voting, but following, closely, the goings on in the Congress and the Oval Office and writing letters, e-mails and telephoning or faxing their representative in Congress over their concerns about proposed legislation, etc. It means attending City Council meetings, at least occasionally,  and County Commissioner meetings, too.  All these politicians need to see you and hear you and KNOW hey are being held accountable to and by the voters who selected them as their representatives.

It is frighteningly easy to see what happens to a government when the electorate does not  stay involved.  We get exactly what we have today in Washington -- a Congress that is so out of touch with their constituents as to seem almost rogue in nature. 

The current government of the US is a product of the lo/info voter.  Who else but lo/info voters would vote for a man for President based simply on the color of his skin?  How do we get so many worthless, corrupt, politicians returned term after term to the Congress except by the votes of lo/info voters? 

So now, we are paying the price.  We're broke, under water, quickly becoming a third-world country, and we're scratching our collective heads wondering how we ever got into this mess.

I submit that wondering how we got into this mess is not the real question.  We already know the answer to that.

 The real question is:  "How do we get out of this mess?"

© J. D. Longstreet