Modern Civics

I think you can make your position stronger by arguing that voting is a HUMAN right.Although I agree with you and encourage you, you might get more mileage by avoiding calling people fascist. The people who believe that democracy should be restricted are well meaning because they see a true problem. What is sad is that their visceral reaction is to punish their neighbor instead of helping them. Its very sad and while I agree it is a scary sentiment, I don't think they are fascists.At least in the US, our problems are not because TOO MANY people are voting. Its the exact opposite.

Right but my point is that you were being attacked, IMO unfairly, because you were talking about it as a constitutional (i.e. US only) right. The right to self-governance is universal and the US Constitution merely RECOGNIZES that right. After a few revisions from the original but still.... Sure but I meant in the sense that the democratic process be limited to the elite/educated/rich/property owners etc. I have no beef with the concept of a democratic republic. You could also make the point that the "stupid" folks who are having their rights taken away may not put up with it. The concept of an open democracy was not something that was ordained by a cultured elite, it was fought for BY those very people who were being disenfranchised. I wonder how those who are suggesting that we keep certain people from the polls propose that such a such a policy would be socially sustainable even IF it did make things better. AND our institutions are screwed up which is where the outrage should be addressed. A 100% free market media is broken when you can predictably change the outcome of a political situation with TV commercials. Blaming people for why systems are broken is not what is going to solve our problems. Fix the system not the people. People are not fixable.

I didn't mean people in the individual sense I mean people in the mob sense. The reason that corporate influence in politics is so dangerous is because it works. We as a population are influenced by media despite the fact as individuals we decry the crappiness of the media. The fact of the matter is, the founders of democracy did not have the problem of designing a system that takes into account the human response, in aggregate, to sophisticated mass marketing by entities with an unlimited voice.Yes individuals can be educated and motivated to participate, I said as much the post before when I join you in sorrow over our fellow poster's tendency to want to punish instead of support our neighbors.Overall, I was motivated to speak up in order to support you against an invalid attack claiming that your sensibilities were only American. Call it voting, call it more broadly self-determination, it doesn't matter. What matters is that your opponents were wrong and you could have called them on it.