Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Keyes Horizon

The Keyes Horizon is the percentage of crazy people who vote in an election. It's the percent who voted for Alan Keyes when he ran against Barack Obama for US Senate in Illinois in 2002.
Keyes was from out of state, so you can eliminate any established political base; both candidates were black, so you can factor out racism; and Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgment. Hell, even like 5% of Democrats voted for him. That’s crazy behaviour. I think you have to assume a 27% Crazification Factor in any population.

A commenter named Jon H said, "May I suggest it be called the “Keyes Horizon”?"

It's a perfect name for the condition. Just thought it should be part of your vocabulary. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

2 comments:

  1. That percentage is very close to the persistent approval ratings of the most recent former president.

    Thanks for the term. It's delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It could also be called the Bush Minimum.

    ReplyDelete