A December, 2015 survey of Republicans voters by Public Policy Polling reads like pointless drivel about how many Republicans would vote for which Republicans a year from now. It’s a little unbearable to even skim through. Face it, there are only so many times one can tolerate looking at the name Santorum in a 95 page document before pleading to be waterboarded. But there’s a little relief from all of this around Question 38, to which most Republican respondents say they oppose Japanese internment camps. Cool. Then we find out, at Question 39, that 13% of Republicans are also against bombing Agrabah…. Like one of those towns in Wales that has a name with no vowels and 43 letters, we had to find out a little more about Agrabah. Well, Agrabah only exists in the minds of Disney writers and animators. They made up the name so that the fictional title character of “Aladdin” could have a fictional country to live in for that cartoon from the 1990s. Yes, a majority of GOP voters is super-enthused about bombing a fictional country.
I’ve always been pretty proud of my ability to identify countries around the world. You can hand me a map, and I can fill in the names of almost every country around the world…and many of their capitols. It’s a neat parlor trick and it allows me to feel like I’m smart, if only in one small aspect of my life. I also realize that I’m something of a freak in that respect. It’s always been important for me to understand the world around me, but I understand that’s not necessarily universally true.
That said, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect Americans to have a basic working knowledge of the world many believe we by rights rule. The sad truth is that too many Americans couldn’t find Wisconsin on a map, much less France, Romania, or Uzbekistan. It’s not a matter of being able to fill in names on a map; it’s about knowing something of the world outside our borders. It’s about understanding that Pax Americana and American Exceptionalism doesn’t free us from a responsibility to interact with the rest of the world. One need not know the capital of Andorra (off the top of my head, I don’t), but knowing something of the non-English-speaking world is a good thing.
The idea that 87% of Republicans would support bombing a country is disturbing in and of itself. That 87% of Republicans would support bombing a fictional country is ridiculous. That so many have no idea that Agrabah exists only in the minds of Disney writers and animators- and that these people are allowed to vote- is distressing in the extreme.
I’ve never advocated for tests which voters must pass in order to vote (You must be THIS smart in order to cast a ballot). I understand the dangerously anti-democratic nature of placing hurdles before voters. That said, there are times when even I have to wonder why so many stupid low information voters are allowed to vote. If a person can’t be bothered to understand the world around them and/or the issues at stake in an election, why should they be allowed to impact the future of our country. If a voter won’t make the effort to inform themselves and instead votes based on emotion or propaganda they’ve been fed, how are they making a positive contribution?
An argument could be made that the sorry state of our current public political discourse is that there are large numbers of low-information voters who can’t be bothered to make decisions based on the facts. Instead, they reach conclusions based on propaganda, hate speech, fear-mongering, and disinformation…and they feel they should have the same rights as anyone else. In this respect, they’re very sadly correct; they DO have the same rights…which means the future of our course is in the hands of people who shouldn’t be trusted to pay their cable bill, much less cast a vote.
If 87% of Republicans would support bombing a fictional country, it makes sense that so many would support candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, whose qualifications to be President are nothing if not fictional.
A very wise man once said something along the lines of “Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.” That 87% of Republicans could support bombing a country that exists only in the mind of Disney employees, I’d say we have all the proof we need of the correctness of that assertion.
Welcome to our new idiocracy.
