Re: A simple proposition to fix democracy in U.S.

rico wrote:

> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Erik Aronesty) wrote:
>>If we charged people a $200 federal tax penalty for failing to vote in
>>a federal election, it would stir a subtle but powerful shift in the
>>counciousness of the country.
> 
> It would also be unconstitutional. Consider not voting is a statement on
> the state of affairs itself. a sort of 'none-of-the-above'.

Its a bad idea.   For one, at least 1/3 o all Americans are functionally 
illiterate.  You don't want a brainless Gomer wandering into a voting booth 
and trying to vote without being able to read.  Yeah, with electronic
tablet voting machines, you could paste in a picture of Bush or Dean,
but face facts, most of the Gomers wouldn't recognize most candidates 
anyway, couldn't pick out Dick Cheney from a conman's mugshot on the Post 
Office walls.
And when you get to the usual propositions on almost all local ballots,
well, they'd be lost.  Most of these things pop up on page 12 of the local
paper ten days before election time as is.
Written in gabblese.
  Really, you don't want the illiterate army wobbling in to try to dope out 
a voting machine to pick stuff out at random.

Many Americans, literate, illiterate, semi-literate, are low IQ monkies.
You'd have these pathetic wretches wandering around half lost trying to 
figure out which end is up on election day.
As is now, they stay away, many of them barely cognizant its voting day
as is.

And we have the non-English speakers, who many of them, haven't a clue.
They can't read the papers, listen to the news, and in many places, the 
ethnic radio or TV is news wise, even worse than the not exactly 
competent Engkish language news media.

And winnowing out those who can read and write and find there way to a 
voting booth, many of them don't know crapola.  My local Hearst rag, the 
Houston Chronicle barely qualifies as a newspaper.  Little news, but they 
have sports, sports, and more sports with occasional sports special 
editions.
Anybody wandering into a voting booth informed by the Houston Chronicle and 
what passes as news on TV isn't going to have any grasp whatsoever of 
important issues.

Best they just squat in front of the TV and watch WWW wrestling and bad 
sitcoms with obnoxious laugh tracks to cue them when to stop drooling and 
start laughing.

And when the news with is election coverage starts babbling facts at them, 
they can switch the channel and watch COPs.
Which is about what most of 'em do anyway.

At work, I always listen in the morning to NPR News.
What do all my co-workers listen to?  Shit hippy classic rock.
Except those who listen to rap and bad R&B.
What do they know about shit?  Nothing.  Shit hippy classic rock stations 
don't exactly have intellectually stimulating discussions of important 
issues. The local shit hippy clasic rock station does have astrology 
though. Keep these clowns out of the voting booth please.










> 
>>
>>People, feeling compelled to vote, would also feel compelled to talk
>>about voting. If only to complain about it! But that's OK. This talk
>>would lead, over time, to political discussion and involvement. And,
>>finally, a restoration of "Democratic" part of the Democratic Republic
>>known as the United States.
>>
>>It's a slow process.  But, I think, it's something that's nonpartisan,
>>and something that we can probably agree on.
>>
>>At the very least, we could begin to enact it on a state level - in as
>>many states as possible.
>>
>>I would have said that we could start with California.  But now that a
>>Republican is in charge, I doubt it would pass.  I'm not sure that
>>Republicans really want people to vote.  I think they'd rather just
>>run the show and have nobody vote at all.
>>
>>Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
> 
> Talent on loan from Merck

-- 
When I shake my killfile, I can hear them buzzing!

Cheerful Charlie