Is It Just Me?

If you're old enough to fight for this country, you're old enough to vote. Ok, but then why did we give the vote to ALL eighteen year olds rather than just those that enlist?

Ann Coulter goes further (and this drives the loonies bats)... look what giving women the right to vote has done to this country!!!

I can easily imagine a country where only adult (not teenage) men vote that would elect a qualified woman as president.

Voting for someone because someone fits your own personal demographic without deep consideration of their positions (and meaningful associations) is just plain nuts. The media letting the one get away with just a guy in the neighborhood is appalling.

Watching those video clips of the ACORN organizers giving speeches for Obama

But ask any Democrat or reporter (but I repeat myself) and they'll swear that ACORN is non-partisan in complaince with federal law.

"these people"... you know that's Racist(TM), don't you, Mr. Simberg?

also, "IQ... refrigerator..."; Racist(TM)

"weird outfits"; Racist(TM)

"voters"; Great Depression era code for Black(TM)

You should be Ashamed(TM)...

"I am Barack Luo, and I approve of this message"

Well, welcome to democracy, Rand. Pretty alarming stuff. Society is always pyramidal. There are always more dumb, incompetent, and immoral people than there are smart, capable, and moral people -- because being smart, capable and moral is hard. Necessarily, fewer people succeed at it.

Under those cirx, it's difficult to see how we justify a completely equal franchise, giving the exact same power over the lives of others to an airhead and a thoughtful man, to a selfish blowhard and to a prudent and moral man. And, if we do, it's hard to see how we don't end up with a general tone of politics and general form of government that caters to the lowest common denominator, a flashy, trashy, morally bankrupt circus.

Of course, what else can you do? As Churchill said, democracy is the worst possible form of government -- except for all others that have been tried.

The Founders thought long and hard about this inherent weakness and tendency to self-destruction of democracies. They put in place a number of checks, including indirect election of the President and Senators, reserving many powers to the states, and prohibiting direct taxation (like the income tax) to deprive a majority run rampant from looting the minority that is smart enough and capable enough to accumulate wealth.

But looking at the progress of the Republic over the past 50 years, it's hard not to think that those checks were more in the way of mere brakes -- they only slowed down the process by which democracies historically destroy themselves.

I have no idea of a simple solution, but I suppose arguably you might get somewhere by trying to match power and responsibility. For example, predicate the right to vote on some kind of social contribution. You can't vote if you don't pay taxes, for example. Or serve in the military. It seems unreasonable and morally corrupt to allow people to make decisions for which only others must pay. Or, equivalently, it seems like if you want the power to make decisions, you should be willing to pay the cost of those decisions.

"For example, predicate the right to vote on some kind of social contribution. You can't vote if you don't pay taxes, for example. Or serve in the military. It seems unreasonable and morally corrupt to allow people to make decisions for which only others must pay. Or, equivalently, it seems like if you want the power to make decisions, you should be willing to pay the cost of those decisions."

"Service guarentees citizenship."

I like it.

In some ways, elections are stand-ins for actual combat - "100k people agree with me, only 90k agree with you, so we'll do things my way".

That works only as long as vote counts are roughly accurate. If, on the other hand, the vote totals say that one side wins but the actual population is on the other side ....

"You can't vote if you don't pay taxes, for example"

"No representation without taxation!"

Sounds good to me.

"In some ways, elections are stand-ins for actual combat "

someone has been reading Von Clausewitz.

In some ways, elections are stand-ins for actual combat

Not quite, Andy. In a pure democracy every man's vote is equally powerful. But in warfare every soldier's efforts are certainly not equal. Smarter, better trained soldiers with better weaponry can significantly compensate for more numbers on the other side.

In other words, I may have only 90,000 soldiers on my side while you have 100,000, but you're armed with "sticks" (ACORN organizers) and "AK-47s" (slacker college students), while I have "night-vision goggles" (talented entrepreneurs), "Predators" (ambitious Joes the Plumber), "AC-130s" (Governor Palin) and "JDMs" (a correct understanding of economics). So you lose. Or you would if democracy were more like warfare.

Proportional voting rights, maybe something like this:
- If you're "just" a citizen who pledges and lives up to allegiance you get entry level voting rights which is full local votes and a quarter of a vote on all other matters.
- If you contribute a net positive through taxation you get an additional quarter vote.
- If you're law-abiding (in respect to criminal offenses only and the record is expunged in relation to this after twice the time of the sentence) you get yet an additional quarter of a vote.
- If you're serving or has served with honorable discharge in armed services, law enforcement and safety services, indentured government medical services or similar under-direct-government-command structures you get the last quarter vote.

The voter registration is your tax form (even if you don't pay taxes).

Vote fraud is a capital offense with a mandatory death sentence (or alternatively a triple combo of loss of citizenship, confiscation of all assets, and expulsion) if found guilty.

Hmmm.

It's like watching proto-brownshirts aggregating but with better taste in music.

Hmmm.

"The voter registration is your tax form (even if you don't pay taxes)."

Best part the election takes place just before tax day.

I -like- this plan!

"Vote fraud is a capital offense with a mandatory death sentence (or alternatively a triple combo of loss of citizenship, confiscation of all assets, and expulsion) if found guilty."

Absolutely agreed!

Memo,

I agree with you, but I'd flip the order. Taxes are due October 31st (Fy begins October 1st, taxes come in at end of the month). Then, your return is your voter registration form. I could be agree to moving the tax date to September 30th.

> "sticks" (ACORN organizers) and "AK-47s" (slacker college students),

I think that you've got that backwards. The hard-core leftists that I've known have all been armed to the teeth. It's the squishes (aka "useful idiots") who have been "give peace a chance" and sticks.

Well, sure, Andy. But ACORN organizers and college students are useful idiots. It's the Ayers of the world who need relatively violent suppression.