If God made a mistake would he tell us?

What proportion of the population vote in the US ? I am not sure that you should call the US a democracy. In Australia over 98% of the population vote! It should be 100% otherwise its not a democracy. Why ? because of over representation of minority groups eg. gun lobby.

Would you say that 98% of Australians take the requisite interest in politics and research the position and history of each candidate? Because that's what it takes to vote responsibly. Somehow I doubt 98% of Australians really do all that work. But, I could be wrong.I'd rather that people who couldn't be bothered to learn about the issues and history simply didn't bother to vote. An uninformed vote is worthless - or worse, is harmful, because it offsets the vote of an intelligent, informed voter.

Who would you suggest administered the examinations to see if someone was eligible to vote? The government?

Should we put our faith in an intellectual elite then, no, compulsory voting forces people to confront the issues. It makes everyone responsible. It’s not perfect but its better than letting people opt out. I think you will find that even the uneducated have an opinion to cast at election time, even if it is only the tax on beer! The informed voter in the US is just a voter who has got up off their ass. That doesn’t mean they are responsible voters.I don’t know the statistics, but I would be interested to see what the representation of voters is across socio-economic classes in the US.[This message has been edited by Autocatalysis, 06-27-2003]

None Of The Above. I don't accept he legitimacy of any government or state. I refuse to to endorse their claim to legitimacy by voting and participating in the charade of representation. I recommend to all the withdrawal of support implicit in the voting procedure.Politics is not something that happens on TV, casrried out by interchangeabloe suits. Politics is about the way we organise our lives, and it happens on the streets, through our actions - not by passing the right to act to others.[This message has been edited by contracycle, 06-27-2003]

By not voting aren't you voting for the 'current power'
by default?

That's not what I propose. What I propose is an ad campaign reminding people that if they don't know anything about the issues, they're just voting for a face. So they should either get informed or not bother.Honestly I don't think there needs to be a test involved, or anything like that. I'm just saying that really high voter turn-out may not be a universally good thing.[This message has been edited by crashfrog, 07-02-2003]

You may not be aware that anarchy is the least stable of governments - it falls apart at a touch. All it takes is one person with some money or a big stick and your anarchy is over.If nobody votes, then the one guy who decides to vote has all the power. Then we're no better than a monarchy.It's called participatory government for a reason. I'm not sure you should vote, but that's no reason to try to get others not to do so.

quote:

---

Then we're no better than a monarchy.

---

There's nothing much wrong with autocrasy .... it's
just the kind of people who want to be in power that
are the problem ... and that goes for ANY system of
government that we currently know of.Someone who seeks power is the last person you should
give it to!!!!

quote:

---

What control do we really have over any legislation that
is passed?

---

We, as constituents, actually have a great deal of control over the laws which get passed.Most of us are simply too lazy to get involved, actually think deeply about the issues, and take responsibility for making the democratic process work properly.We cannot entirely blame the people we elect if they are seduced by power if our system is set up to require an active citizenry and most of said citizenry abdicate their responsibility to maintain democracy.Give the people SUV's and Reality TV and the government can do what they want, it seems.

quote:

---

I refuse to to endorse their claim to legitimacy by voting and participating in the charade of representation.

---

The reason that representation can be considered a "charade" these days is because only a small percentage of Americans take up the responsibility to inform themselves on the issues and actually vote.You are part of the problem if you do not participate in fixing it, and the only way to make representation legitimate is for the citizenry to hold up their end of the bargain and vote.

Nobody seems inclined to take this worthy, but off-topic discussion to a better home, so I'll force the issue.This topic is closed.Adminnemooseus