If you don't vote, don't complain; If you're not informed, don't vote!!

It's not about whether voters are college educated or are any particular color. The media have the love of exit polls all wrong.

It's about folks who rely upon hearsay rumors to make the most important decision an American citizen is called upon to make: which lever to pull (or touchscreen button to push -- here in NYC we still have voting machines from the '50s with rows of levers).

It's about folks who do not understand or care about what it takes to keep oneself well-informed, to dig deeper than viral videos and fleeting sound bytes. It's about folks who believe unsourced (or falsely sourced) "forward to everyone you know" emails claiming that a particular candidate is Muslim, or that they voted for/against some piece of legislation, or that they said Kim Jong Il is their hero.

It's about those whose knowledge of what America is really about, and whose memory (if they ever bothered to read) of what the Declaration and Constitution actually say, is so pitifully wrong that they believe the United States was set up as a Straight Christian White nation and that anyone who is not a Straight Christian White person is probably not Patriotic, and is definitely not qualified to represent "us". The ones who think that being any particular religion, or none, ought to disqualify anyone from serving in the U.S. government.

The ones who thought, after hearing Dubya repeat ad nauseum the "9/11" mantra when selling his daddy's used War in Iraq to the nation, that Saddam Hussein had something to do with the attack. (The percentage of Americans who swallowed the hook, the line, the sinker, was staggering.)

The ones who re-elected George H. W.'s Mini-Me in '04 because they really thought he had been acting to make us safer, and that Wiffle-Waffle Kerry had no interest in protecting us.

Indeed the media leaves so many of these mendacities unchallenged or under-exposed, so we can point some of blame for the Mass Stupidity Factor at the networks and other news outlets. But there are also many men, of whatever educational level and whatever color, who go the extra mile to seek multiple sources of news, there are also many who simply click Delete and feel slightly disgusted when they receive an email claiming that Candidate X is a neo-Nazi or a Muslim or Squeezes The Toothpaste In The Middle.

I submit that the folks who vote based on beliefs and rumors spoon-fed to them in spurious emails, in news bytes that would not overtax the attention span of a flea, and in politicians' speeches and press conferences ... should be required to take a Voter IQ Polling Place Entrance Interview (IQ for Informed and therefore Qualified). If you think Obama is a Muslim (or if you think that, even if he were, this automatically makes him an undesireable candidate unfit to lead your country) or that he was sworn in with his hand on the Koran, you just disqualified yourself. Go home, and invest some actual time and thought and care into this process. You can try to pass the test again in 2 years ... meanwhile you're on probation for Voting While Ignorant.