ABC's John Stossel: Some People Shouldn't Vote

[NethayrusShadowblood]

This appears to be a part of the problem, but in my opinion, there is a second part to it: Not enough politicians come from a science background. If you have somebody who is really passionate about science, he won't be studying law or how to lead people. This leaves politicians painfully undereducated in scientific questions, leading to poor decisions in things pertaining science (as a recent example, take SOPA, which any computer scientist would not like to see implemented (DNS instability))

[mad3moyer]

I have no problem with where Stossel stands here. He's not encouraging a law, or a test to allow someone to vote. He's saying "Look, if you don't actually know what you are voting for, maybe you shouldn't just vote to say you voted." What annoys me is that there is clearly a Republican agenda (which he tries to disguise) here. All the questions/photo surveys are done with very young people, who we all know tend to be more Democrat voters. Let's see these same tests with a 75+ group.

[perdondaris]

If you pay sales taxes then you should vote. Everyone pays sales taxes therefore everyone should vote.

[SaudaraLink]

Some people who don't pay attention may self-select out of voting?

[belolacove]

How about, instead of closing people off from the process because of their ignorance, we educate people to become better voters? Dropping out of the process just makes it more insular and easily corrupted.

[yami700thumper]

I feel ya johnny boy, i feel ya....

[gunslinger072]

Well...there is never going to be a test you have to pass before you can vote. The stupid and uninformed will always be allowed to vote. However...if the stupid and uninformed were NOT voting...no liberal would ever be elected again.

[psovegeta]

@gunslinger072 If stupid people didn't vote, most people wouldn't run. Liked how he said how easy it was to vote in Florida 2:56 , dead people loved W.Bush so much that they rose from the grave to vote...either that for Gov.Jed Bush was a necromancer. But I knew a girl who voted for Obama because she thought he was cute. Not exactly what I consider to be responsible statesmanship. Some people are voting for "Christian" conservatives who have the same financial backers as Obama.

[perdondaris]

The problem is deciding who gets to vote and who doesn't. Who is going to do that? It would have to be the government deciding who can vote and who can't. Would libertarians like the government deciding who can vote?

[LexNaturalis1982]

@perdondaris Easy. Do it the way james Madison advocated at the Constitutional Convention. If you dont pay taxes then you dont vote. Anyone who has the right to not pay taxes and votes essentially are telling the government where to put everyone elses money. And what do democrat voters tell the government to put other peoples money? In their welfare check so that they can continue to be ignorant voters. No one who is sibsidized by the government can vote their conscious.

[doogleandalix]

I love John Stossel -been watching him for over 20 years and always liked the guy's smarts and style. Check out his book "Give me a break" - in it he "takes on the FDA, War on drugs and he shows how the problems that govt tries and fails to fix can be solved better by the free market system" - sounds like Ron Paul and he is a supporter of the good Dr. Paul.

[heirihunziker]

2:35 lol the other guy's trying to sound witty but he totally messed up. what he said makes no sense, he probably thinks he can get away with sentences like that because no one listens closely.

[arivas713]

He is not arguing for a 'voter test,' he is just saying--and all of you know this is true--that some people do not know what or who they are voting for. More youths know more about snooki or their latest tabloid rag than their legislative representative's political platform. Democracy depends on an informed populace, if the citizens are not informed, what makes you think that the politicians they elect will be any smarter? An hour or two a month studying what goes on will remedy this situation.

[sibra003]

ok i disagree with this argument on so many fundamental levels, that I wouldn't be able to post them all in 400 characters, so I will just ask the 1 question that I think can be viewed as "compromise"

If you wanted to stop "stupid people" or "uninformed people" from voting, how would you go about doing so? I see no test or evaluation process that would eliminate "bad" voters without effectively eliminating a lot of "good" ones as well. The type of knowledge that one should have in order to vote

[sibra003]

@sibra003 is subjective, and coming up with a general knowledge test , in my view, would either A) not test relevant subjects (ie, do we test for U.S. history, current event, or both?) or B) fail to encompass a full view of what is important when trying to contribute to your government (I.E., if you test on the basics of democracy, are you leaving out important subjects such as foreign policy, or people's grassroots interests to protect their hometowns etc.)

Most importantly the last thing

[sibra003]

@sibra003 we would want to do in the volatile state that our government is in is discourage citizen participation even further.....let the debate begin...thoughts?

[ConRevolutionary]

How the hell do you think Obama got elected rofl.

[Shonenut213]

Democracy is the rule of the stupid but it sure are hell is far better that totalitarianism.

[Eastbay007]

"We hold these truths to be self evident that all men were created equal."

So, that statement, which contributed to the birth of our sovereign nation, is merely a load of bullshit? We're now ready to concede that some people are more equal than others?

[AngryIntellectual]

@Eastbay007

All were created equal and given equal ability. How they use that ability is dependent on their choices. If they choose to be stupid and ill-informed, then they should not complain when one is to call them stupid and ill-informed. Consequences come with choices, and so the consequence should be to not allow them to vote. That doesn't mean they are less equal, that just means they fucked up.

[worldslinger81]

I mean, come on!

[rustyoneone]

there's a difference between educated and enlightened,

an educated person ruins our economy for his own gain for example.

while an enlightened person refuses to use child slave labor even though it would be VERY profitable.

[DartmouthAlum96]

The poor, idiotic, uneducated in our slobs in our society should be steralized.

[phil8888]

80% of John Stossel's popularity is due to his voice.

[rickbruner]

Shepard Smith didn't even know Roe vs Wade. He said "white person and a black person" confusing it with Brown vs Board of Education. Roe vs Wade gave a woman and her doctor the right to privately decide on abortion.

[Ken5244]

@rickbruner

You misinterpreted what Shep said. He was being critical of the person who gave the "white person and a black person" answer. I assure you Shepard Smith knows what the Roe vs. Wade case is.

[rickbruner]

@Ken5244 ok.

[Wilseyz]

At 52 seconds in, America is a REPUBLIC not a DEMOCRACY. We ELECT people to vote on issues on our behalf. I wish we were a democracy, but we aren't. Getting facts wrong does not help you win an argument.

[CetraTJ]

@Wilseyz hey, its actually a democratic republic. Its a democratic system for the republic. Its still a democracy.

[Wilseyz]

@CetraTJ I must agree, I was wrong, I appreciate your concern and corrections, and you are correct, I must say that we are a Democratic Republic and one must recognize that our country has aspects of both a democracy and a republic. I

[MarmaladeINFP]

John Stossel is basically saying what Bill Maher has aid many times before:

Americans are stupid!

But, to be fair, most Americans are stupid because watching mainstream media makes people stupid. If the media was doing their job, we would have an informed public. Stossel should ask his fellow media pals why they are making Americans stupid. Maybe it's because the people who own the media (such as Rupert Murdoch) want people to be stupid.

[alalelalex]

Informed rational people will not vote. So then nobody will be voting.

[earwaxhalo]

How about this: uninformed people become informed, then vote. Easy.

[dons123111]

Stossel was a Liberal turned Libertarian, I was a Conservative that turned Libertarian. It happens when reason gains the high ground over emotions.Union ran Public Schools have done their job. Knowledge is not important to them, dumb down the children with their unreasonable totalitarian rants and now we have illiterate voters who vote for more totalitarian law.

[TheMrMarple]

ignorant people shouldn't vote.

[logloglife]

I agree with stossel completely on this point. I had acquaintances in high school that are mind-numbingly stupid. If they think the earth is 6000 years old they should not vote. Seriously, if you don't know who is currently in office you should abstain from voting.

[IMBLUESTREAK23]

John Stossel is a hero. If only everyone possessed his brain capacity, the world would run a lot smoother.

[prschuster]

I think it's commendable for people to abstain from voting if they feel they aren't informed enough. Stossel isn't talking about banning people from voting. Democracy is not about rule by public opinion. It's about having a well educated & informed population elect their representatives.

[packrat76]

The United States was founded as a constitutional republic, not a democracy, and yes, democracy is mob rule.

[conservative608]

Let me ask a question to those who are just disgusted by the notion some people should not vote. John Stossel didn't propose we make it illegal for ignorant people to vote. I will agree that that would be wrong and if someone would propose a law like that it would be someone's arbitrary standard of knowledgeable and ignorant. Anyway, do you believe children should be able to vote? why or why not?

[conservative608]

If someone thinks that Global Warming is caused by humans with our industrial equipment and thinks that Kyoto or Cap & Tax will solve the problem, is ignorant and the cost of that ignorance is that a politician that they elected will implement these economically disastrous policies and kill jobs. That is one of the costs of ignorance in a representative democracy.

[conservative608]

"Obama money" A Detroit woman who is so ignorant she does not know where bailout money is coming from. "his stash" That is about 0.00000000000001% correct since Obama is a taxpayer. This is why ignorant people should not vote because they will eventually give us a communist totalitarian dictator in the White House who will declare himself emperor and get rid of our democracy because ignorant people will develop non-sexual crushes on them.

[Macruff455]

Stossel is just a spokesman for corporate communism

[rationalCrash]

you obviously haven't listened to or thought about anything he's said. He's libertarian, the exact opposite of the corporatism, fascism that the democrats and republicans implement.

[belolacove]

Rationalizing anything he says with "he's libertarian" doesn't automatically make what he says libertarian. John Stossel is a man, not an ideal. It takes more than pointing at a label to explain why someone says what they say.

[danbuck333]

actually hes the only reporter/presenter i know of who is for freedom and liberty, so you must be either stupid or ignorant

[IMBLUESTREAK23]

@Macruff455

Your a fucking moron.

[panther9mm]

Then why can't you homeless people get handouts?

[panther9mm]

The most educated voters voted for Obama, so we got lucky this time.

[cwood4ever]

We need to go back to land owners only can vote. People who have something to actually loose. Fuck renters, and I'm a renter hahahaha. Schools for fools.

[panther9mm]

Aren't renters homeless people too?

[cwood4ever]

Yes

[Srd1126]

this is just one reason why "motor voter" should be repeled

[panther9mm]

I just can't believe you don't feel comfort in the millions of americans who selflessly spend their money to keep the economy going in times like this. I bet you aren't doing your part.

[jonshultz]

you probably shouldn't vote

[panther9mm]

You must be angry we got Obama in office.

[TimeWarp66]

Anyone with half a brain in their head should be angry idiots like you "got Obama in office"

[panther9mm]

You the one with the "half-brain", and you call me an idiot?

[benandreas369]

Obama sucks, and the recession is not over...

[panther9mm]

Didn't you see the news today? The recession ended in August. That is a fact. You must give thanks to Obama and especially Bernanke for their insights in the economy.

[benandreas369]

Yeah, didn't the news say that a recession would never occur (back in 2006?) Didn't people like Ron Paul and Peter Schiff get laughed at by people who work at these news stations... Bernanke, Greenspan deserve to get shot for keeping interest rates so low.. of course the economy is getting better, in the short run. This is from the stimulus money being pumped into the system, but all we are doing is creating another bubble which will lead to another crisis.. thanks Obama!!!

[panther9mm]

But according to Krugman that is exactly what we need, another bubble. And then after that one fizzles or pops we can make another bubble, and so on to keep the economy going. It's a long term strategy developed by the Nobel Prize winning economist.

Bernanke knows everything, he made 1600 on his SATs, and with his godlike perfection he will be able to steer this economy in the right direction. Schiff isn't smart enough to understand the whole economy like Bernanke.

[Knoss]

I think Bernake did a good job with monetary inflation, presuming he raises interest rates and pulls back inflation, but I think the spending stimulus has done more harms then good. The plan started too late and it won't be effect fully until next year when we may have rampant inflation.

[panther9mm]

I'm not sure which would make the gold bugs more pissed. They complain about a weak dollar. And if the dollar is strong then they lose money on their gold investments. They will be angry either way, but they may be more angry with a strong dollar.

[panther9mm]

I'm not sure if Bernanke has the option to increase interest rates. Interest rates on the foreign debt will go up which will add to the size of the debt, asset prices will go down so tax revenues will go down from capital gains. The system is broken. 

But who will washington save? People on wall street who use leaverage or the common man who wants a higher savings yield? Just look who they saved in the past.

[panther9mm]

As interest rates decrease all asset prices and the economy gets a boost. we are at the level of zero now and some people know it needs to go below zero to sustain the market. But going below zero is only good in the academic world.

[panther9mm]

There are so many people bad mouthing the public education system. What we need is more money for the teachers. That if any is the only problem.

[jonshultz]

sarcastic?

[panther9mm]

That's what the union workers say.

[panther9mm]

Look, what the economy needs right now are consumers spending, and the people on welfare are the backbone of the consumers in our society. They will spend the same amount of money no matter what the economy does, so they are a vital part of our economy. Our economy does not depend on producers.

[jonshultz]

are you purposely saying dumb things to be funny.

[panther9mm]

It makes sense to some people.

[grumpone]

LOL I love it how some posters actually take you seriously and argue with you. LOL. I have to say, good work on thinking all this shit out :)

[panther9mm]

You really need to understand about economics. We are consumers and people on welfare are part of the consumers. We need them to help our economy. Especially in this recession. We really need all the help we can get to get the economy back to where it was. You need to keep it real. Don't talk about what you don't know.

[jonshultz]

haha for every 1% decrease in employment GDP decreases 2%

[panther9mm]

The recession is over. Didn't you see the news. The stimulus is working.

[jonshultz]

your a funny guy

[panther9mm]

That is racist! This Stossel guy also complains about school education. There is no problem with the public school system. He's just complainin because he know Obama gonna be in the house.

[siggensax]

I went to america for high school, not impressive..

[panther9mm]

You should have studied harder, then you would have better grades.

[siggensax]

wow, your an idiot, I got a´s in all classes except ap english.

[panther9mm]

See, you should have studied harder.

[grumpone]

I don't think the knuckle draggers get your sarcasm.

[hunterabrooks]

I'm feelin' the idea of an oligarchy right about now

[fomastephanovitch]

I love what George Carlin said about voting.

Of course you can complain.

[fomastephanovitch]

Oh yes you know we can can yes we can...

Oh shit, we can't!

[xkeltoix]

stossel rules

[RamenNoodlesBrown]

A lot of people argue that restricting democracy goes against what our country stands for, and, vicious as that sounds, that's not how our country was formed. Initially, only white male landowners could vote. It wasn't outright racism or sexism, but rather a perceived belief that they were the only ones informed enough to make a proper decision. Beneficial as it would be, you'll never see a system that requires knowledge of the issues to vote in this country.

[xkeltoix]

were NOT a democracy. its a federal constitutional republic

[Shiga37]

Well, at least that was the idea that we were founded on. Doesn't seem to have been that way lately

[zedrein18]

That motherfucker is 62 years old!!

[gaiuskaiser]

Stossel is a legend

[captainphoenix]

Just realized that this was done on Fox News - took me by surprise based on the truly objective and respectful interview job...is this interviewer a spy?

[nickels92679]

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.- Winston Churchill

[swu880]

@nickels92679

hence why we have not a democracy but a republic :) lets bring back the republic

[whoo689]

And then we wonder why our politicians are so crooked, so incompetent. It's like George Carlin said: If you have ignorant, selfish voters, you're gonna get ignorant selfish politicians!!

[TheAbsintheReviewNet]

Precisely, yes!

[Vulture629]

truth to the max.

[whoo689]

Only a fraction of voters in this country would actually have the brains to run things right. Maybe we should go back to a meritocracy. It sounds a lot more sane than what we have now, where any idiot can run and focus on stupid issues and demogague all they want for votes. Where the lowest denominator becomes commonplace, and voters cast ballots based on good-sounding rhetoric instead of facts and evidence. Where voters have very low attention spans and respond to silly attack ads.

[whoo689]

Yet these so-called evangelicals or "conservative Democrats" vote Republican or turned Republican all b/c they don't wanna vote Dem since they've been brainwashed to think Dems are evil or inherently bad at gov't. They want any excuse not to vote their interests (ie Democrat or liberal), so they latch onto this clinging to guns and god and anti-immigrant sentiment. They start putting faith in silly things that don't matter, like gays getting married or stem cell research and lash out.

[whoo689]

The fact that most voters in this country are just plain stupid and uninformed NEEDS to be said! I know it's become politically incorrect to call a spade a spade in this day and age, but there ARE stupid voters, like the ones who vote Republican even though they're very poor and down in the dumps all b/c they're socially conservative and care about these silly evangelical "values" issues, like gays or abortion. Yet upscale Christians don't give a fuck about that, since they're doing fine.

[drhoffma]

Anywho who is "enraged" by this common sense assertion by John Stossel is probably the focus of this 20/20 segment. Voting is good -- if you are INFORMED. It does our society no good for legions of uninformed people going to the polls. If you don't have BASIC knowledge of our government, stay the home on Election Day! Thank God for John Stossel for being the first person with enough guts and courage to speak the truth! Some people should not vote. Period.

[sarahlittle195]

I don't understand how anyone who has any interest in their country would vote if they have no idea of who the candidates are, AT LEAST!

We need responsible voters, not ignorant ones.

[drhoffma]

Amen!!!

[ferrozm]

thank you!! People are really stupid and shouldn't vote if they are.

[ElectricPineapple79]

John Stossel shouldn't be able to vote. Or procreate for that matter. And Palin shouldn't be able to run for VP!