I read an article on line that essentially concluded that there is no incentive for voters to truly study and understand the political concepts being espoused by their candidates in a democratic election. It included the following statement:

"The real worry, though, is that when we look at the policy platforms of the two major parties, we see that both the Republicans and Democrats push agendas that tend to appeal to the uniformed and disinterested. We can’t quite blame them for that. After all, politicians need to win elections, and to do so, they have to appeal to voters. In a modern democracy, the uninformed will always greatly outnumber the informed. The quality of our candidates reflects the quality of our electorate. But democracy encourages our electorate to be bad quality."

Do you agree?

If anyone wants to read the whole article (note: ignore the headline. It's about voters in general) http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/10/the-dance-of-the-dunces-trump-clinton-election-republican-democrat/?ref=yfp

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Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.- JD Vance
If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.- JD Vance on the J-6 insurrectionists

Democracy or representative Democracy?

Yes to both, but especially the latter. People would rather have leaders they'd like to have a beer with make decisions for them.

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Before I clicked the link I figured that had to be by one of Josh Barro, Bryan Caplan, or Jason Brennan. I'm sure they view this election as a bonanza for their disingenuous arguments against democracy.

I agree. They have become personality driven love fests where things like do you like this person become more important than actual policy positions. .

Bush defeated Gore and Kerry precisely for this reason in my opinion. Obama was more likeable than Hillary, McCain, and Romney. Reagan was more likeable than Carter or Mondale. Bill Clinton more likeable than GHW and Dole.

It's getting to a point where if you want to know who the next President will be all you have to do is decide who the cooler of the two candidates happens to be.

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My favorite part about Brennan's feeble arguments about epistocracy is how he always assumes he'll be one of those high quality voters who doesn't deserve to be disenfranchised. After all, he has a PhD and understands neoclassical economics unlike the proles!

HW and Carter were coming out of recessions (and more)

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Inneresting theory but most people don't even vote.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

The "Beer" argument is what you hear most about though. In this particular election there wasn't a day that didn't go by in which the likability of both candidates wasn't discussed. Two most unlikable in history.

Rarely if ever was differences in policy discussed. Saw the same thing with Obama and GW. Image of the candidate is more important than whether we agree with him or her about policy I believe.

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just under half of eligible voters actually vote

which is sad, but i dont think it matters because those who dont vote- especially the ones who didn't this time- are complete idiots. if you dont think your vote counts, then you dont understand the most fundamental part of our democracy therefore you dont know shit else either.

i would bet a great portion of the trump protesters didn't vote either. many i see on facebook actually admit they didnt vote, but they are still pissed trump is president. shocking

trump didnt win because he did better. he won because he did worse. so bad that he discouraged a huge portion of would be dem voters to just not show up. everyone thought it was in the bag for hillary. no way could people actually vote for trump. well, they didn't. the same number of people who ALWAYS vote republican did just that. they simply voted for their party again. the democrats didn't, because they are so smart they knew what everyone else was going to do.

the best thing trump will do is piss everyone off so much the next 4 years that we elect a black woman next time around. bush w but one up him.

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