The political humor of Saturday Night Live (SNL) has become a mainstay of modern elections in the United States. The show is especially well known for its impersonations of candidates. However, so far this season SNL’s spoof political advertisement from a fictitious group called Low Information Voters of America is generating the greatest amount of political discussion.
The mock advertisement depicts undecided voters as lacking basic civic knowledge as they ask questions about when the election is held, who is running and whether or not they are an incumbent, how long the president serves, who succeeds the president, and whether or not both sexes can legally vote. SNL presents these few remaining swing voters in a way that implies they might have a problematic amount of influence in a close election.
However, is low information an issue only with just late deciding swing voters, or are they much more prevalent in the United States? A little known Zogby poll conducted in 2006 on a representative sample of adults (+/- 2.9%) in the United States provides some insight about how uniformed voters are by comparing political knowledge to awareness of popular culture.
Whereas 73.8% of respondents correctly named the three stooges; only 42.3% of knew the three branches of the U.S. government. Fifty-six percent knew the name of J.K. Rowling’s Fictional boy wizard; yet only 49.5% correctly identified the Prime Minister of England—and this was during the fallout of Iraq war and Downing Street Memo. Sixty-three percent of those polled could not name one Supreme Court justice; 85% were able to identify at least two of the seven dwarfs. Twice as many respondents (22.6%) knew the last American Idol than the last justice confirmed to the Supreme Court (11.3%).
Democracy needs an informed electorate, although the level of information necessary to maintain an effective republic is open for debate. This poll (which does need to be redone because it is becoming quite dated) finds that many adults in the United States — both the decided and undecided — are more informed about popular culture than politics. Thus, while voters may be “informed enough,” it is still difficult to subjectively claim it is healthy for a democracy to have a populace more knowledgeable about reality television, children’s books and fairy tales than civics.
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Jason Eastman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Coastal Carolina University who researches how culture and identity influence social inequalities.
Comments 35
Palaverer — October 12, 2012
When I hear the phrase "undecided voter" I wonder how many of them are actually undecided between the two main party candidates, vs how many are undecided between say, a republican and a libertarian, or a democrat and the green party candidate. I'm honestly still not completely decided because I want to vote for Jill Stein, but I know there's no chance in hell of her winning. To top it off, I live in a swing state where votes have greater weight. Not voting for Obama gives Romney an edge so I have to decide which is more important to me: voting for the candidate whom I truly believe is the most qualified, or voting against the candidate whom I think is least qualified. None of this is indicative of lack of understanding or awareness of politics.
Dave — October 12, 2012
This lack of knowledge is why all democracies devolve into tyranny. Love it or hate it but the electoral college and the republican (representative) nature of our government moderates the negative impact of such an ignorant electorate.
Yrro Simyarin — October 12, 2012
Do a little googling on "rational ignorance." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_ignorance
The average voter has almost no influence on the outcome of national elections. Less even than their chance of winning the lottery. This becomes even more so if you don't live in one of the nine swing states (notice that the candidates haven't bothered to make appearances anywhere else since the conventions). Becoming politically informed requires a large amount of time and energy investment - both in learning the background of the system and in keeping up on current issues and candidates - not to mention sorting out the partisan spin from the truth.
The only reason anyone does know anything about politics is because of their own personal enjoyment, or because of a culturally ingrained sense of civic duty. In terms of actual rational incentives... there aren't any.
Which makes it even more unfortunate that we spend so much of our attention looking at national issues. Your participation can actually matter with your local school board or township trustees, but instead we spend all of our time worrying about the choice we make in an almost empty ritual.
Anyone thinking that video makes an actual point (and not just a good joke) needs to ask themselves if they know who their current local judges are, what levies are up on their local ballot, who their state representative is, and whether they are decided on who they're voting for city council.
Elena — October 12, 2012
Fifty-six percent knew the name of J.K. Rowling’s Fictional boy wizard;
yet only 49.5% correctly identified the Prime Minister of England
That's easy, it's Kingsley Shackle--- oh, wait.
In their defense, David Cameron is so dull and the UK so absent at an European policy level in a time when most headlines have been made by Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, I bet most Continental people would draw a blank, too. They'll know it's not Tony Blair anymore, but who...? :P
Larry Charles Wilson — October 12, 2012
The United States of America is a republic, not a democracy. Read the Federal Constitution.
Not so ignorant — October 12, 2012
This whole "people are ignorant" meme was just the subject of a Language Log blog post: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4243
Depending on the survey and its metrics, the conclusions about the levels of people's ignorance can be vastly overstated by the press.
arcrawfo — October 12, 2012
I so wish I could see the U.S. with compulsory preferential voting...
decius — October 12, 2012
More telling: The humorists are more incisive than the pundits.
The American political system is literally a joke and a punchline.
glasgowkauri — October 13, 2012
A post about Americans' ignorance about politics which mentions the Prime Minister of England? There is no such office or person. Sticks in the craw a little for those of us in Scotland (and Wales) who are campaigning fervently for such an office to exist.
Dianna Fielding — October 13, 2012
I work with a non-profit that registers students to vote. This year we have registered over five hundred at a small liberal arts college in Minnesota (the state with the highest voter turn out). I would estimate most fit this profile. They don't know when to vote, or how to get to their polling place. They are unaware of basic things needed to fill out registration forms, including their social security number. There are many contentions amendments on the Minnesota ballot, and most have only heard of one. We do everything we can but I am certain that many will go to the polls unaware of local judges, congresspeople, and other representatives--or simply won't vote at all.
Barbara — October 13, 2012
First, 2006 is NOT "quite dated." How old are you? 12? My students complain that something 10 years old is "out of date." But something only SIX years old?
Second, other countries have very short political campaigns. For that reason, people in those countries decide whom they will vote for quite close to the actual election. IN our ridiculous system, where people campaign for president for over a year, what happens is that most of us fall into one of two camps very early. It is pretty ridiculous that our political system has become so dramatically hostile that registered Republicans KNOW they will vote for whichever Republican wins the primaries, even if that person was someone they could not stand early on. And the same for Democrats; we don't even consider voting for ANY Republican, and will hold our noses and vote for whichever Democrat is running for president. So the "Undecideds" may be a combination of various populations: people who are uninformed; people who were traveling or sick or in the hospital or taking care of a newborn, etc, who were too distracted to pay attention to the unending idiocy that is our political campaign "season." They may be, like my extremely WELL-informed brother, truly cynical and disenchanted by EVERYONE who is running, and be undecided because he can't decide on which of the two people he does not like or trust. He says, "I would vote for Biden if he ran." His wife says, "I would vote for Clinton if he ran again, or for Hillary if she were running." They may be, like my mom, a Catholic voter who agrees with the Democrats on everything BUT abortion, and therefore struggles over her votes. They may be normal Democrats who are racist. They may be normal Republicans who don't trust a Mormon, or don't trust some other group. Or they may be independent moderates who are fooled by Romney's act. What I am saying is that not all "Undecideds" are idiots or uninformed. There are LOTS of reasons why people are undecided. I really WISH I could make my mind up a month before a major election, rather than knowing that, whoever is running, even if they are someone I can't stand, I will vote for him/her because I am a die-hard Democrat and can not bear the thought of a Republican winning. And I wish my son-in-law could make HIS mind up with only weeks to go, after an intelligent, informative campaign, instead of knowing that he will vote for whichever Republican is running, because he is a die-hard Republican voter. I think our system stinks.
Rishi — October 14, 2012
Those undecided, low information voters seem to know more than the actual candidates do. But to be fair, it is hard to judge just how much the candidates know since they are always lying. The only time that politicians get embarrassed is when they inadvertently blurt out the truth. Fortunately, the two parties can be played against each other. Just make sure that niether one gets enough power to do anything and our system works pretty well.