The Way I See It - Mandatory Citizenship
Permalink +Wed, Apr 28, 2010, 5:54 am // Ham Hayes
Tip Johnson // Wed, Apr 28, 2010, 11:03 am
How about making proof of having voted a prerequisite for receipt of any government service?
David Camp // Fri, Apr 30, 2010, 2:32 pm
Ham - I’m not sure that voting in a federal election makes any difference - the system seems to me to be a bit of a Potemkin village show controlled by shadowy secret puppetmasters. As long as they control who gets on the ballot, do we have a democracy?
Compulsory voting just gives them another reason to invade our lives with law enforcement, as if they need another.
I think a better way of voting is with your wallet - I just paid my federal income taxes and it would have hurt badly enough if I thought it was being put to good use - but sending more money into that cesspool of corruption that is DC makes me grind my teeth. However, taking a vow of voluntary simplicity and reducing my income below that which would attract federal taxes is looking increasingly attractive as a way of starving that out-of-control beast.
What if 25 million middle-class taxpayers simply dropped off the tax rolls? (Legally, I mean). 50 million?
The recession may accomplish this anyway - the government can only print money for so long before inflation starts raging away again. But freedom to me means freedom from the stupidity, arrogance, and corruption of the federal government. At least under Nero and Caligula the Roman Legions raised money from the countries they invaded - our modern imperial troopers are just impoverishing our country while they create new enemies all over the world. Nice work getting that Iraqi oil, eh? For Russia, France, and China.
Ken Whitley // Wed, Jun 09, 2010, 2:54 pm
I’ll accept mandatory voting when they accept “none of the above” as a legitimate winner, who GETS TO HOLD OFFICE FOR THE ENTIRE TERM.
Barring that, open, multi-party, proportional representation, with truly transparent voting.
But no, having to lick either the chimp or orangutan willie under coercion is not citizenship, it’s a degrading travesty of government.
There’s lots of ways to get people to vote. The best is for an intelligent progressive minority to take over the local government, then it’s a win-win whether they vote or not.
Another is to make popular services self-extinguishing witout repeated votes (this works great for roads, for example) - but it has to be something that actually impacts a majority of those in power and not just the poor.
One could also make the argument that if I have to vote, then my legislators should have to read what they vote on before they vote on it.
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