Today is yet another primary day in America. Some of the biggest decisions the country faces will be left to the tiny handful of voters who show up to vote. And once again the results will remind us of one of the enduring truths of democracy: The majority is often wrong.

This fact is as true today on global issues as it is on domestic ones. Blame it on ignorance. Blame it on the distorting lens of the media. Blame it on the spinmeisters and snake oil salesmen. But the reality is that more often than we care to admit, the people are dopes.

I know this will outrage some. But they are among the dopes. And as usual, a careful analysis of the facts undercuts their position. (But facts are to these people as my advice is to my cats -- just ambient noise that they ignore on their way to a sunny spot on which they can curl up and sleep. Which is why, as Soren Kierkegaard put it, the "public is everything and nothing...the most dangerous of all powers and the most insignificant.")

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that contrary to the populist liturgy the world would be an even bigger mess than it is if public opinion guided every major decision. And that's saying something.

For example, in July 1941, polls indicated only 17 percent of Americans supported the idea of intervening in the war in Europe. Or consider that 68 percent of Americans believe that "angels and demons are active in the world." (If you are one of them, please stop reading this.  We could get to some big words later and the rest of this is just going to make your head hurt.)  Or that George W. Bush was elected not once but twice to be president of the United States.

Now, we shouldn't be surprised. The reality is that the majority of the people haven't the slightest idea as to what they are taking about most of the time. In a 2007 poll it was found that more than two-thirds of Americans couldn't name the president of Russia and eight out of ten couldn't name the Secretary of Defense (while almost two thirds could identify Beyonce Knowles). In 2006 only just over a third of Americans between 18 and 24 could find Iraq on a map and fewer than three in 10 thought it was important to know the location of countries in the news.   

Everybody is entitled to their opinion. But not everyone deserves to have their opinion garner the same amount of respect. If you don't know anything about a subject, why should your viewpoint matter? It's why the founders of the republic opted for representative democracy -- the people should have a voice ... which would allow them to pick professionals who would study the issues to make their decisions for them. It's a better idea than the alternatives but you have to admit, even it hasn't worked out so well if our elected officials are the metric we're going to use to judge.

There are plenty of issues in the news right now where it is absolutely clear the public and the truth are on different sides of the argument. Take just these five:

• U.S. Immigration Law
  America was built by immigrants. Vast swaths of the economy depend on labor by illegal immigrants. The influx of (often young) legal and illegal aliens to the United States actually has helped make us the only major developed economy that is not suffering the burdens of a population whose average age is dramatically rising. And there are plenty of ways to deal with real problems associated with illegal immigrants that do not actually involve the constitutionally dubious practice of letting police stop people based on the (entirely racially motivated) "suspicion" they are immigrants. Yet, 60 percent of all Americans currently favor letting police stop and verify immigration status and a majority of Americans who have heard of the Arizona immigration law support it. Two thirds of all American believe U.S. military should be deployed to the border to prevent illegal immigration. Better there, I suppose, than Afghanistan but two exercises in futility do not make a right.

• Off-shore Drilling
  Something like a third of U.S. energy comes from offshore drilling. Something like 80 percent of that comes from deep water drilling. Much of the most important new sources of off-shore oil are in deep water. A moratorium on new off-shore and deep off-shore will cost billions (almost three billion next year if the current hold on activities is kept in place.) What's more much of that money goes to regimes that don't much like America increasing our dependence on a bunch of bad guys. Further, despite this year's catastrophe, off-shore drilling has a great track record (and would have a better one if we had better regulatory enforcement...as opposed to a shutdown.)  Still 51 percent of Americans now feel off-shore drilling is too risky (a big swing from two years ago when 70 percent supported it).

• Anything That Has to do with Israel
  A majority of Americans believe Israel should allow an international investigation of the flotilla fiasco. Well, that seems reasonable...unless you take into consideration that a 2007 BBC poll of 27 countries showed 56 percent of respondents believing Israel was a negative influence.  Or that within that poll, Israel was regarded unfavorably in 23 countries, worse than Iran which was seen as unfavorable in 21 and North Korea which is seen as unfavorable in 20. Think Israel-the only democratic, successfully non-resource-based economy in the region -- could get a fair hearing on this planet? (Viz. the Goldstone report, a deeply flawed and biased analysis from a guy with a very dubious background.) Seems unlikely...but a change of venue is beyond our technological capabilities at the moment. (I noted The Economist critiqued Israel's "siege mentality" in the current issue. But I think the critique overlooks the fact that Israel is actually under siege and has been since its founding. Doesn't that excuse something?)

• Global Warming
  While the vast majority of the world's scientists believe that man made global warming is a major and imminent threat and despite the data they cite on rising global temperatures, accelerating polar ice and glacial melting and changing weather patterns...and while 73 percent of people surveyed worldwide want their governments to prioritize climate change, only a minority (44 percent) of Americans felt this way. Further, percentages of those who believe global warming has begun are dwindling and the number who see it as a serious problem has slipped to 35 percent from 44 percent. Almost half of all Americans, 48 percent, believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated.

• Women's Rights
  According to a Pew poll, the majority of those polled in Mali (65 percent), the Palestinian Territories (64 percent), Kuwait (62 percent), Pakistan (54 percent) and Ethiopia (51 percent) said that men make better political leaders than women. Which is something considering the history each of these countries has had under male leadership. Further in Jordan, Nigeria and Russia almost equal numbers says men are better leaders as who say men and women make equally good leaders. A different perspective: almost 8 out of 10 American women say that we still don't have equal pay for equal work while only just over half of men feel that way. (The facts say we don't.)

The list goes on and on, a poll this month showed that only 37 percent of Americans favor more government regulation of the financial system despite all obvious evidence to the contrary. And a poll last month showed that 53 percent of Americans believe same sex marriages should not be recognized.

Why raise this? Because people too often confuse majority opinions with what is right and too often suggest that it is the responsibilities of leaders to heed the majority. It clearly is not. In fact, often what has distinguished great leaders is their ability to actually lead people away from the problems to which they, left to their own devices, might have been heading. 

Finally, is this an argument for elites? Heck, no. (Unless you mean should people with the education and experience to make decisions actually be listened to more carefully than say, I don't know, radio talk show hosts or movie directors who don't know the slightest thing about geology?) Elites get it wrong as often as the majorities do. For years they thought Pluto was a planet.  Few predicted the fall of the USSR. Few predicted the market collapse of a couple years ago. Heck financial markets assume that half the elite will be on the opposite side of any deal from the other half. No, this is just an argument for giving the facts and the experts a bit of a listen when it comes to really important decisions because believe what you may about angels, it is generally not a good idea to make plans based on their intervention.