In a new Pope Center article, Jenna Ashley Robinson takes a look at a program at Wake Forest University designed to encourage college students to become politically active. She thinks it’s unwise, because few college students have the knowledge about how the world works to make intelligent judgments about politics.
I completely agree with that view. Very few college students have the ability to figure out what the actual consequences of political action will be. They’re suckers for ideas that supposedly have good intentions (like minimum-wage legislation), but they don’t have the mental tools to understand the full, long-run impact of government policies.
Most adults don’t either, but that’s beside the point here.