As I said, it would be nice if we could contemplate a return of literacy tests. In our present cultural milieu, however, this is beyond unthinkable, so I won’t dwell on it.
And the too-dumb-to-vote segment is only a part of the problem we conservatives have with universal suffrage. Here’s another part: too smart to vote.
People of very high intelligence are especially susceptible to large abstract theories about society. Those of a literary inclination fall for romantic and imaginative theories like those identified by Stephen Pinker: illusions about the Noble Savage, the Blank Slate, and the Ghost in the Machine. Mathematical and scientific types are prone to see politics in terms of engineering; to see human populations as quantities of concrete to be shoveled around. As P.J. O’Rourke said after visiting Poland in the 1970s: “Commies love concrete.”
