A low opinion of the voting public

Re “All hail the clueless American,” Opinion, April 24

Here’s a sentence I never thought I would utter: Jonah Goldberg is right. The voting public has indeed been clueless.

How else could George W. Bush have been elected president twice? Why else would people have bought into the absurd belief that we were doing the right thing in Iraq, that it was actually part of the war on terror, that victory was indeed at hand the day Bush declared it on the deck of that aircraft carrier? Who but the truly clueless would have given up the rights of citizenship in the interest of thwarting the boogeyman? How informed could a person be to accept the idea that the White House accidentally lost thousands of e-mails pertaining to the ongoing investigation of Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales?

That’s the good news -- we don’t buy any of it anymore. We are finally beginning to get a clue.

MICHAEL VALENTE

San Clemente

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Goldberg denigrates democracy, claiming Americans are ignorant. Fine, he is entitled to his opinion. But he shouldn’t dare write one more article railing against “activist judges” thwarting the will of the people.

RUSSELL KUSSMAN

Pacific Palisades

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Goldberg insists that only popular politicians get elected. That may be true in a democracy, but Americans wouldn’t really know because we do not live in a democracy but in a republic. In 2000, for example, the most popular politician, Al Gore, did not get elected president. Instead, Bush was appointed. Talk about the “vanity of political elites.”

DENISE CLARY

Culver City

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Goldberg’s column ends with a plea to preserve the electoral college because without it, “we’ll soon see candidates ignoring small states and rural areas entirely.” But if you live in a Republican zone in a Democratic state, or vice versa, politicians ignore you just as heartlessly because your state is not a “battleground state.”

The electoral college introduces distortions into the system, which Goldberg needs to acknowledge. Or maybe he’s hoping for a repeat of 2000.

PATRICK FRANK

Monterey