With Venezuela's grand failure of socialism, it would probably take a stupid person to ever support the idea of electing a socialist candidate here.

Sure enough, something like it is going on. Look at what the Daily Wire is reporting today:

An NBC poll which debuted Sunday on "Meet the Press" revealed a characteristic about Bernie Sanders (I-VT) voters that wasn't exactly flattering.

It turns out, the less you pay attention to politics, the more likely you are to support the socialist option for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

"The less you are paying attention, the more likely you are a Bernie Sanders supporter," Todd says, pointing to a Monmouth poll taken recently showing that Sanders is losing definite ground to both former Vice President Joe Biden and a suddenly-much-stronger Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who has jumped between 5 and 6 points in the polls since Biden entered the race.

The implication, of course, is that Sanders voters are "low information."

Now, we all know people who aren't stupid who support Bernie Sanders. If we don't know them, personally, we know of them. Camille Paglia is a prominent Sanders supporter and nobody would ever dream of calling her stupid. They might hate her. But they'd be in thin ice if they questioned her intelligence.

But 'politically disengaged' might be correct in her case, given her scholarly focus on history, culture and the arts. Same with other prominent Sanders supporters such as James Zogby, Morgan Freeman, Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen and Cornell West. Wrong, but not stupid, in some cases, probably disengaged, or in West's case, a wannabe commissar.

For plenty of other people, "low information" is a better descriptor. And whether the people are bright or not, the effect is pretty much the same.

The Daily Wire reports that Sanders supporters took umbrage at the poll, arguing that it was an 'ad' from the press for Joe Biden. Maybe... But more likely, the poll is calling it right and a noisy vanguard without great numbers is hollering, errantly thinking that Sanders' support is widespread in the manner that their support is. They're deluding themselves, because the poll shows that Sanders' support is built on a pillow of voter ignorance, and with voters who, deep down, don't know what they are asking for and don't pay attention.

Yet it makes sense, because socialism is all about pretty-sounding promises - free college, free health care, free pensions, free money, no guns, and a side of open borders - all of which turn out false in practice. People who don't pay attention are the ones who are going to fall for it. More engaged people won't. We all know that socialism is enacted through demogogues these days, preying on people's ignorance - and Hugo Chavez is Exhibit A.

Yet with Democrats moving in the direction of a popular vote, and 'count all the ballots' - read: ballot-harvesting on indifferent voters who never intended to go to the polls, as well as unsought mail-in ballots - my congresswoman, Susan Davis, has one of those out - the Bernie phenomenon is sure to grow as a phenomenon. There are news stories out that suggest that Bernie is yesterday's news or all washed up, but that may not be the case if he draws low information voters. The system as Democrats are moving it is guaranteed to create more Bernie voters. 

Let that sink in even as Bernie voters whine precipitously about how the Democrats are going to cheat them. That may be what they're doing, but the ignorant voter base is not a strong pillar upon which to counter it.

Image credit: FS1 Community TV Salzburg, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0