It never ceases to amaze me just how hypocritical people can be, especially myself at times. No more is this more apparent than with most people who vote. Because when you vote, most people tend to vote with their emotions, rather than their reason or intellect. Of course, some people may argue that no sane, reasonable person would vote. Anyway, here’s a short list:
- Voters who want both low taxes and more benefits. While it’s true that if you lower taxes to a point, you get more tax revenues, however, there is always a tipping point for this. But even if that’s true, take away the mathematics of the situation: if you are interested in low taxes but more benefits, how is the government going to pay for the benefits? You’re a hypocrite if you support both. That includes support for expanding military services, by the way.
- Voters who want to keep drugs illegal but oppose prohibition because it was a historically unmitigated disaster. Yes, if you vote to keep illegal substances illegal while at the same time tout that prohibition in the 1920s was a bad thing, you’re a big hypocrite. The War on Drugs is failing precisely for the same reasons that Prohibition failed in the 1920s. I shudder to think what the mafia would have acquired had Prohibition not been repealed.
- Voters who will complain about everyone else’s representative, except for their own. Usually these voters have benefitted from some form of pork-barrel legislation, but generally most voters never look into the voting records of their representatives. Meanwhile, they will complain about the other guys and how they are the true bad apples. You’re a hypocrite if you continue to allow the corruption and cronyism of your representative by not voting the bum out of office.
- Voters who only want to help people. Usually, when a voter votes to help a person, he or she does so with the idea that he or she won’t have to pay for it. This means that all the taxpayers will have more of their money taken to help people they may not necessarily want to help (like the Palestinians who have received billions of US dollars under Bush and Obama in the last decade).
- Voters who vote to allow their representatives to borrow more money for some public works project. Usually this applies to the local and state elections since the Federal government will borrow without regard for how you feel about it. Basically, most voters are really annoyed when a government budget runs a deficit. They will complain about it and see no reason why the government can’t operate a balanced budget. But then a public works project comes up and they really want that newly overhauled public park. Yes, you’re a hypocrite if you operate from that mindset.
These just some of the hypocritical voters out there who will be voting in next Tuesday’s election. The only way to prevent them from doing a lot of damage to your wallet and overall sanity is to show up and vote for the most rational, sane person on the ballot and reject any expansion of government that is proposed. Of course, that means you may have to write in your own name, but at least you can say that you didn’t vote for that guy.