America's Ideology

[Emsworth]

An individual's positions on any issue is rarely related to particular facts. For example, even if it were demonstrated that socialism is an inefficient economic system, there would be many who favor socialism because it produces "equality." This trend is even more pronounced when it comes to social issues; a conservative's opposition to abortion or a liberal's support for the right to burn flags has nothing to do with any specific facts.

A properly educated public, however, would be inclined to favor less federal statism, because people would realize that most federal programs are unconstitutional.

[Emsworth]

It never ceases to amaze me the extent to which libertarians seem to believe that the only reason they lose is because they're misunderstood, or because the public is not knowledgable enough, or whatever.

I certainly did not mean to imply any such thing. I was speaking about constitutional issues, not political ones.

[Emsworth]

You are mistaken there as well, because knowing about your particular constitutional interpretation will not make it any more appealing to most people.  Most people prefer the government programs, Emsworth, and couldn't care less if they're 'constitutional' or not.

I'm sure that many people would prefer to have such programs run at the state level rather than the federal level, if they knew that the federal program were unconstitutional. Thankfully, there is still a degree of respect--albeit a very minute one--left for the constitution.

[Emsworth]

Well, you said that a "properly educated public" would "be inclined to favor less federal statism", which sounds a lot more like a comment on their political views than simply their thoughts on what is and isn't Constitutional.

Well, the second half of that sentence is "because people would realize that most federal programs are unconstitutional."

As I noted above, I do not believe that educating the people will significantly change their political beliefs--only their views on what is or is not constitutional (among other things) would be affected.