Should we take away old people's voting rights like we do their driving rights?

Nah... just make them take a test like black people had to back in the days.

 

Especially now that the GOP wants to privatize Medicare, right?

 

Unfortunately they have the support of the Constitution and a very active and powerful lobbying group, not to mention the sympathies of all the old fogies in elected office.

But, if we're going to open the door to disenfranchising people, there's a lot of other people we should be looking at too. I can't say I feel very comfortable putting my political fortunes in the hands of a good 90% of the electorate.

 

This.

There should be a required test to weed out the uneducated, ignorant voters from putting into office the kind of people who equate the federal government budget to the US national debt ceiling, and fight tooth and nail to win an election by sacrificing the country's economy.

The test should cover subjects like macro and micro economics, sociology, government, statistics, symbolic logic, US and World history since the Industrial Revolution, biology, etc. Will this discourage the average Joe from voting? That's the point. [/brief rant]

[On the Wisconsin election] "...the public seemed to vote against its own interests and stated desires, for instance by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich." http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2010/11/top-political-scientist-us-voters-are-pretty-damn-stupid

 

Yeah we should do away with generations of battles over civil rights because democrats don't like the way some republicans have been voting.

The only way to have real democracy is to make sure people who don't vote like us can't vote!

 

I support a civics aptitude test for voting privileges.

While we're at it, we need a harder test to get a driver's license, too.

 

As I've said before, we should simply do away with voting and elect representatives at random.

 

Not so sure about this, but I do support term limits as a sort-of compromise.

 

I agree with you completely, what measures would we have to take to make this a reality?

 

I support term limits fully, but I do not think they will be as effective as people hope.

 

Agreed. It's a start, though.

 

Why don't we just bring back the tried-and-true poll tax?

It worked for old Jim Crow.

 

Yeah, forget about input from everyone who's wrong, eh? Let's leave it to a newly elected all knowing king! wait a second...

 

You can't vote unless you have read Darwin's Origin of Species...

 

Instead of complaining about how old people voted for Buchanan on accident, how about we just design a ballot that isn't awful. That Florida ballot confused plenty of people all the same. Your anger should be directed at the moron who made it.

 

This is a position I've been endorsing for a long time - it's called "demarchy" and it's essentially a draft for representatives. I think it would work more fairly and, possibly, better than our current system. It would essentially be like the lottery - every term random numbers are chosen. If your number comes up, you're now a politician (with caveats, of course).

Otherwise, as much as I hate the fact that ignorant and misguided people have so much influence over the political process, I am dead-set against ANY sort of test that would take away someone's voting privileges. No matter how well-intentioned the idea may be, it seems like it runs completely counter to the entire idea of our right to take part in the political process. The idea has a pretty ****ty history as well ... it's best to just avoid it altogether.

I also STRONGLY endorse term limits for ALL elected positions, and would even like to extend those limits to all positions of Federal power (such as head of the FDA, the FCC, and so forth). And, as geeimsobored says above, it'd help if the people designing/administering the equipment through which we elect people weren't ******* r****ded.

 

Everyone sit down...

I agree with Thadeus!

/clutchfans faints

 

Or leave it to these type of guys . . .



Rocket River

 

I am not as big a proponent of term limits as many in here. I like the idea of having a cadre of seasoned "professional" representatives who know how government works.

This most recent midterm is an example of the havoc that can occur with representatives who have no clue how goverment works.

With term limits, just about the time that they learn how things work, they have to leave office.

I understand that having term limits should broaden the knowledge base, but I'm skeptical.