The Educated Electorate

An oft quoted requirement for a free democracy is an educated electorate. At no time is that more evident than now as critical decisions and strategies unfold in the 08 presidential campaign.

With the conclusions of the Ohio and Texas primaries where the nation saw millions of cross-over voters gaming the system, it is clear that the sophistication of voters is evident. In my view, however, is it too little too late?

According to some pundits, there is no way that Hillary can overcome Obama’s lead in delegates unless the “Clinton mystique” has its way over the Democrat super delegates. And that would put the Clintons in direct conflict w/ Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi has stated that the voters will decide the nominee not party leaders at the Democrat convention. We shall see.

Notwithstanding the drama in the Democrat party, the notion of Barak becoming the nominee worries me greatly. The fact that such an inexperienced policy light-weight is a hair’s breadth from the presidency is terrifying. And this causes me to reflect on the level of education of the American electorate.

Recently, a California court ruled against a homeschooling family saying that putting their children in public school is in the best interest of the children. Worldnet Daily has a terribly confusing article about the decision but it points out the obvious that, in many instances, the government is actually working against individual freedom and exerting too much control over education.

On the other hand, I recently I spoke at a wonderful Christian private school in a very wealthy Southern California community. Among the examples I used was that of Terri Shiavo, the Florida woman starved to death by her husband with the support of the Florida courts a few years ago. I don’t think any of the students or faculty recalled the national issue that was in the news every single day almost exactly three years ago. After my presentation, my wife and best source of feedback, said that I spoke over the heads of the audience and that I failed to use enough “Christianese” for them to track with me. In my view, privately educated young people are the only hope for the preservation of knowledge but this worried me.

Maybe I’m stretching a bit too much, but is there a connection here? The poor products of a poor education leads to poor choices in the leadership of our country. Please America, prove me wrong.

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Tagged as: Education, Politics, public education