Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Washington's governing elites think we're all morons, a new study says

https://news.vice.com/article/washi...s-a-new-study-says?utm_source=vicenewsfb

By Alex Thompson

September 30, 2016

Voters are angry at the political establishment and the political establishment doesn't much care for the voters either. In fact, they think voters are pretty damn stupid.

That's the conclusion of a new survey of America's unelected governing elites by political scientists at Johns Hopkins University. While media outlets endlessly poll and probe the American people to understand why they feel so disenchanted with their government, Professor Benjamin Ginsberg and Senior Lecturer Jennifer Bachner instead looked at America's political ruling class for answers. The federal bureaucrats, think tank leaders, and congressional staff members they surveyed, Ginsberg said in an interview with VICE News, "have no idea what Americans think and they don't care. They think Americans are stupid and should do what they are told."

It seems that the disenchantment is mutual.

In their new book What Washington Gets Wrong, Ginsberg and Bachner report that the overwhelming majority of D.C.'s Beltway Insiders think the American public is pitifully uninformed on government policy. 72 percent of those governing officials think the public has little or no knowledge about policies to aid the poor. 71 percent believe that they have little or no knowledge about science and technology. And across eight different policy areas, never more than 6 percent of those surveyed thought the public possessed a "great deal" of knowledge on the topic.

With such a low opinion of the American public, perhaps it is not surprising that the vast majority of these political insiders believe they should ignore public opinion. At least 78 percent of those surveyed thought that actions in all eight policy areas should not always or even mostly heed popular sentiment.

If the public resists, Ginsberg told VICE News, then bureaucrats "nudge people into obedience." In fact, 'nudge' has been the PR-friendly word of choice for bureaucratic regulations in the Obama era. Cass Sunstein, Obama's Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, even co-wrote a book in 2008 called Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health Wealth, and Happiness that lays out how the government can use behavioral psychology to more efficiently achieve policy goals. They dubbed it libertarian paternalism.

While many voters have long suspected this condescension, evidence of it has occasionally risen to the internet's ever-choppy surface. In 2014, MIT Professor and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber was caught on tape explaining that "the stupidity of the American voter or whatever ... was really, really critical for [Obamacare] to pass." Most lawmakers and voters, he suggested, did not really understand the law and that "lack of transparency is a huge political advantage."

This divide between the federal government and the public seems likely to split even wider as the Beltway technocracy has only grown in wealth and power in recent years. The three wealthiest counties by median income in the United States are in the D.C. suburbs. In 2015, the average salary for a full-time federal government employee was $79,437 and only $58,726 for an employee in private industry, according to the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Perhaps as a result, public trust in government is at historic lows. Only 19 percent of Americans trust the government to always or almost always do the right thing, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center study. In light of this new survey, that may not be surprising since most in government don't think the public knows what the right thing is.

The remedy for this disconnect between the Capital and the people it ostensibly serves is unclear. Whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton win this November, this Beltway class will remain largely in place. This election may only be a foreshadowing of more voter anger.

Unfortunately they are correct!

We are a bunch of fuqking morons for letting the country get where it is.

We are not morons, in fact we have a cure. Don't vote for an incumbent candidate.. Ever again.

"They think Americans are stupid and should do what they are told."

That's funny, I think the same of almost all congress critters. And most of them are also useless at tits on a boar.

Obama said the American vote is stupid...CBS caught it on tape about 2010 ...refused to release it ....burnt by now imo

I doubt there's enough tar and feathers for the whole crowd. Maybe some horsewhipping and bringing back the guillotine would straighten them up.

I'm willing to give it a shot...............

At last I can finally agree with something that POS said.

Liberal low info voters are stupid.

Democrats know that and prefer dumbed down voters, they are much easier to fool.

Independent, critical thinking people are a threat to them.

Our school system and importation of third world immigrants also ensure a dumb voter base for the liberals to exploit.

That doesn't get rid of the bureaucrats. They tell each incoming freshman class of congress critters;" I was here before you came and I'll be here after you leave,"

As I've said before, I have come to understand the need for the guillotine in the French Revolution.

They are right and evil.

As far as career politicians go - I believe the guillotine is too humane.

Term limits!

But, how do you get the pol's to enact their own limitations?

Public petitions?

You need to consider the guillotine a mechanism for social and political change. The fact that it's lethal is an unavoidable coincidence.

America has become too fat, dumb, and happy. As a result, the parasites have taken over; and they're not about to surrender their power hungry gravy train to a bunch of peons. They're happy to just continue to play Santa Claus to a bunch of ignorant, apathetic, low information, poorly educated (thank you public schools), voters who are voting themselves into a socialist, police state, tyrannical hellhole. By the time they wake up it will be too late. But hey; they got what they voted for.

Dan, my dear departed Pop was saying that when I was 19-20 years old. I thought he was crazy at the time. Boy, was I wrong.

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FIFY

To many people that do not pay attention. To busy with 2 cars,new house, raising kids to notice the crooks. Hasbeen

That's because of the way the Feds have bought everyone off and sued or threatened everyone who can't be bought. This is possible because the Feds possess an unlimited supply of money and, thanks to them ignoring the Commerce Clause, infinite justifications. The only way to end this is to enforce the Commerce Clause and end the debt-based fiat currency system.