The Great Discrediting of Voters

Life and politics are often about unintended consequences. Our current political debate is unintentionally detrimental to democracy.

Unintentional, because most people are in fact kind-hearted and are merely seeking to make the world a better place. Yet, too often in this pursuit, we make grave errors.

I think that we are currently making a mistake that will cost societies all over the world:

The mainstream discussion after the 2016 election of Donald Trump has circled around questioning whether people know what is good for them and if Russia unduly influenced the election outcome.

Relatedly, the Brexit shock led to many intellectuals actively condemning the voting public and call for another referendum.

These two conversations, while completely understandable and valuable are damaging to the political climate in Europe and the US.

In the context of Brexit, the Remain camp reacted to the referendum by reflexively trying to justify why in their eyes the outcome did not count. Commentators argued that because most young people had voted to stay in the EU, their opinion should be given more weight because they would have to live with this decision for long. Similarly, it was repeatedly stressed that leaving the EU would make especially those demographics…