Why Don’t Voters Care About Candidates’ Sins?

[Ed Hudgins]

Why Don’t Voters Care About Candidates’ Sins?
By Edward Hudgins

June 9, 2016 -- A recent poll found that 71% of Democrats think Hillary Clinton should still run for president even if she’s indicted. And Donald Trump hurls crude playground insults, which we discourage in our eight year olds, at the appearance or ethnicity of opponents, yet his supporters never flag in their enthusiasm. Why do these voters seem unconcerned about the serious moral failings of these

seriously statist candidates? And what can be done in the future to stop the moral and political decline of the country?

 

The worst possible candidates

This year the major political parties nominated the most corrupt and thuggish candidates we can imagine.

Hillary’s unfavorable rating is 37%. She epitomizes the term “sleazy politician.” Her foundation raked in huge donations from foreign governments when she was secretary of state. She raked in millions in speaking fees from corporate donors and kept those speeches secret as she assured voters she would not bow to corporate influence. Her excuses about hiding her emails fooled no one, and her lies surrounding the Benghazi deaths were a disgrace. Yes, Bernie Sanders supporters were put off, but the majority of Democratic voters and political insider Super-delegates were just fine with her.

Trump’s unfavorable rating is 53%. Throughout the primaries, commentators kept predicting that his latest slur about the face or menstrual cycle of female opponents or his smearing of entire ethnic groups would drive disgusted voters to anyone but him. But his support grew.

 

Know your audience

In the case of Trump, we failed to understand just how disgusted voters are with all politicians. Uber-Christian Ted Cruz, an iconoclast himself, thought that evangelicals would flock to him rather than to the thrice married Trump who has bragged about his affairs and who defends Planned Parenthood. Cruz was wrong.

Free-market oriented candidates thought Republican voters would disavow Trump for his anti-free trade policies and his promises to vigorously use government power rather than limit it. They were wrong.

These failures certainly demonstrate the importance of “Know your audience.” Do you want to persuade someone of something, like why they should vote for you or your candidate? You need to tune in to their priorities, values, assumptions and expectations. Not yours. Theirs.

Trump tuned-in to their anger. None of the other candidates effectively tuned-in to their positive hopes... (Continue reading here.)

[jts]

The Problem:

Politicians are the lowest form of life walking on 2 feet. It is normal for politicians to be crookeder than a dog's hind leg and lower than a snake's belly.

Politics is the dirtiest game.

An election is a lying contest. They make promises to get elected. That means they tell lies. The winner of an election is the winner of a lying contest. It follows from this that every elected politician is a goddamn liar and we should not be surprised if they have no more respect for truth than an alley cat has for marriage..

Each government is more or less the same shit but from a different ass hole.

In a free market the best people rise to the top; in politics the worst people rise to the top.

Good people want to run their own lives and let other people do the same; bad people want to run other people's lives and therefore are attracted to political power.

It is the nature of government to tend to evolve toward evil over time. This tendency can be to some degree opposed by constitutions and rebellions but in the end government wins.

 

Possible Solutions:

1. Anarchy. Get rid of government. Objectivists are thumbs down on anarchy. I would like to see a debate between a leading Objectivist and Stefan Molyneux.

2. Objectivism. Yaron Brook thinks if the right philosophy (Objectivism) is in place among the general population, then government would no longer be evil.

3. Live independently of government like Greg the moralist. To do this seems to require not being an employee. I don't know how a world with no employees would work.