---
title: "Steven Postrel I don't let voters off.  As I've written elsewhere: "I..."
date: 2025-09-05
source: facebook
type: comment
context: "Archer T. Ships replied to Steven Postrel's comment."
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---

# Steven Postrel I don't let voters off.  As I've written elsewhere: "I...

*September 5, 2025 — Comment Archer T. Ships replied to Steven Postrel's comment.*

Steven Postrel I don't let voters off.  As I've written elsewhere: "I don't think [political] corruption is the main problem. The main problem is that voters are stupid, ill-informed, and irrational. So they demand stupid, ill-informed, and irrational policies. The most pernicious, expensive government programs--Iraq/Afghanistan wars, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid--were all wildly popular with the public when implemented. The old people welfare schemes are still so popular that it's politically impossible to even cut the rate of increase in spending on them, even though the US is already on track to likely default on its debt. If you're a politician, and you want to win office / retain office, you have to try to satisfy the public's whims without causing so much destruction that the public blames you.    That selects for people who are willing to lie shamelessly and/or are too stupid to know that they're lying. See Bryan Caplan's Myth of the Rational Voter, Jason Brennan's Against Democracy, and Achen and Bartels Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government."