A conclusion of Scott Winship’s analysis of ideological identification, via Kevin Drum:

Adults are conservative on foreign policy and national security (52 to 48) and values (62 to 38), but liberal on economic/social policy (57 to 43) and fiscal policy (60 to 40). Consistent with the idea that liberal is a stigmatized word, just 56 percent of operational liberals self-identified as liberal, while 30 percent self-identified as conservative. In contrast, 79 percent of operational conservatives said they were conservative.

Waitaminute… If the majority of the population is “conservative” on “values” (read: they approve of butting into things that don’t concern them via the State) & on foreign policy (read: they’re militaristic & irrational), while being “liberal” on fiscal policy (read: they believe money grows on trees), then wouldn’t that mean that the average voter is pretty much a fascist?

Now, I’m taking this analysis with a huge grain of salt because 1) concrete definitions were not given (I made an educated assumption of what was meant; challenge me on them if you wish), 2) no “libertarian designation was given (being socially “liberal” & fiscally “conservative” does not make you a libertarian, as actually-existing fiscal conservatism advocates not a natural market order but neo-mercantilism), & 3) it’s from a site called “The Democratic Strategist”, for cryin out loud, but there is logical reason for this result to be accurate.  There’s an observable tendency among us, which varies not by political views but by commitment to whatever they are, to underrate the effect certain things have on us in the long run.  People that get involved with political matters and/or care about them — including people like myself who want to hang politics with the rope it sells us — make up an awkward group, one that sees the consequences of things that do not directly affect us immediately.  The rest of the population is operating off of rational ignorance:

Ignorance about an issue is said to be “rational” when the cost of educating oneself about the issue sufficiently to make an informed decision can outweigh any potential benefit one could reasonably expect to gain from that decision, and so it would be irrational to waste time doing so.

Take the %age of the population that is eligible to vote.  As we all know, a sizeable amount don’t bother, for various reasons*; many simply do not care.  Within the group that remains, there are people that are motivated enough to vote, but not to really think through their choice; these would be the ones that are either cultural partisans (i.e.: “my granddaddy was blahblahblah, my daddy was blahblahblah, so I’m blahblahblah”) or choose based on some cue that has nothing to do with their qualifications for office (I recall reading awhile back a study showing that some people voted in presidential elections based on looks — seriously).  Further down you get people who are such rabid partisans that they would vote for a ham sandwich if you stuck the right campaign button to it, & folks that vote for whoever brings their area the most pork, irregardless of where the money is supposed to come from or anything else.

Ask yourselves: Who is left?

This explains so much — why the incumbency rate for congressmen is something like 98%, why there’s the “I hate congress, but love my congressman” phenomenon, etc., but ESPECIALLY why anti-state types are looked at as oddities: you rail against, say, the Patriot Act, & many aren’t thinking “damn, that’s low”, but “they aren’t watching ME, who cares?”; you complain about defecit spending & their eyes glaze over; you denounce the War on Drugs & (assuming they don’t use drugs themselves) they say “eh, that doesn’t involve me”.  As a nation, we have essentially turned “whatever” into a political slogan.

Our task is to get those people to realize that you have to draw the line somewhere NOW, because when it’s obvious it’s too late.

(* - I’m leery of voting again because frankly at times I feel we’d be better off if there was an election and no one showed up.  By discussing election stuff for others, I’m hedging my bets in the narrow hope that maybe some sort of shift can be made in the traditional way, but I’m not holding my breath.)