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02/17/2008: "No change coming from elections"

Let's face it, politics is a superficial activity in which (most) candidates try to create a mood by pushing buttons expected to stimulate positive responses in significant constituencies. If one button doesn't have the intended effect, you push another and keep pushing until you have assembled a winning coalition. That's all you need to know about electoral politics. It explains the staged events, the self-serving declarations about the passion to "serve," and the hubristic claims to the mantle of leadership.

What's this have to do with the cause of freedom, free markets, and peace? Precious little.

Note the dominant themes in the current campaign: hope, change, experience, straight talk.

Hope for what?

Change toward what?

Experience at what?

Straight talk about what?

It doesn't matter. These terms, and there are others, are not meant to inform. They are meant to seduce. Unfortunately, most voters are waiting to be seduced -- by a sound bite, a smile, a possible tear in the eye. We have a good indication why this is so. As Bryan Caplan explains, since the consequences of the individual's vote are negligible, voters have every incentive to select candidates according to their own pre-rational prejudices, most of which run contrary to economic wisdom and libertarian principles. They vote for the man or woman who makes them feel good.

[ This article is a delightful insight into why democracy fails to make essential decisions and focuses on trivialities. ]

http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1809