Almost two thirds of all eligible voters did not vote in the 2014 congressional elections [1]. A majority of Americans agree that public affairs are going badly, and that politicians are not trustworthy [2][3][4][5]. There are virtually no well known politicians who are not greatly distrusted by substantial numbers, usually by majorities, of the population. There are no undisputed, highly regarded leaders of either major party. Nowadays, the winner of an election is usually a bad candidate, whose principal opponent is considered by most voters to be even worse. What accounts for this dismal situation?
What's the problem?
Many decent, well meaning, intelligent, educated people, hold various invalid, or harmful, or irrational beliefs. They often vote for candidates whose behavior in office is inconsistent with their own views. Why?
It isn't that people are stupid, or uneducated, or mean, or corrupt. Most ordinary people not in politics, are decent, and intelligent enough so that, if reasonably informed, they are likely to arrive at valid conclusions with respect to public affairs. But, in practice, a majority of people seem unable to act intelligently in the realm of politics, even when their goals are sensible and benign.
It is quite common to find intelligent, honest, well intentioned people disagreeing with one another on their election day choices. Since they can't all be right, it follows that many good people pull the wrong levers (archaic language; they are putting X's in the wrong boxes, or pushing the wrong buttons).
One fundamental problem is that, in the area of human relations, there are no precise, objective, means for determining what is the "best" course of action. This is very different from the fields of science and technology, where there are well established, effective, methods and traditions for evaluating ideas. These work very well, tho there are rare cases where errors remain undetected for considerable periods of time. The field where filtering out errors is most effective is mathematics, where there are precise methods for determining the validity of assertions. (There are, however, mathematical problems with no known solutions.)
That does not mean that there is no such thing as right or wrong with respect to morality. Over the ages, philosophers have clearly established, for example, that, with minimal exceptions, truth telling is important in human relations. It is obviously essential for progress in science and technology. There is wide agreement about the importance of certain kinds of behavior in promoting amicable relations among people. Dishonesty, selfishness, cruelty, greed, are generally understood to be incompatible with amicable relations among people.
While most people are generally decent, there are, unfortunately, some nasty people around, including some who are cruel, greedy, selfish, dishonest. Sadly, a disproportionately large number of politicians are power hungry, greedy, dishonest, and often gutless.
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