Posted on 11/01/2004 5:54:45 PM PST by JusticeTalion
I was talking to a friend of mine overseas about his country, the Socialist Republic of Finland, and he was complaining about how pointless it was to have master both Finnish and Swedish in order to graduate High School. It got me to thinking about compulsory items our governments make us do.
Besides Swedish they are also required to complete a compulsory 1 year military stint. Germany and Switzerland also have this, to varying degrees, and we in the US have the Selective Service registration, for males 18-25, in case a draft is needed.
Shouldn't the same be required of all people in the US?
I would propose a small addition to the registration of our children entering High School. They would automatically be pre-registered to vote. While they could not vote until 18 they would be granted the same information as registered voters. Campaign literature, state and federally supplied information and sample ballots.
I believe that most of the voter apathy, 100 million of us didn't vote in 2000, is due to simply lack of knowledge. I must admit, due to experience, that I was one of those 100 million and whatever numbers were added up since 1980. This is the first election for me, please be gentle, and it took something like John Kerry to shake the lethargy and register Republican. It was the great hearing the RNC locals calling me and the lady asking if I registered to vote. I told her yes, with my ballot for President Bush already mailed, and she gave me a "That's wonderful!", with such enthusiasm and joy it still reverberates in my mind more than a week after the call.
I hadn't registered Republican or Democrat beforehand because I simply didn't know which I was. And before you go "You're born that way," or "You shoulda been born that way," (aka Republican) I wasn't or was and didn't know it. I listened to several campaigns over the years, the first I really remember any substantial amount of was Jimmy Carter and President Ford in 1976. I would have been 14 and in the 8th grade. I have no clue what either of them platformed on but I do have a stark impression of both of them. Carter was a peanut farmer and Ford fell down a lot. But I was looking.
I joined the Marines in 1979, at age 17, and my thoughts of politics simply disappeared. I was at a Marine Corps reserve base in 1979 when the lockdown happened because of the taking of our hostages. I saw the disasterous results of Carter's "rescue attempt" and Reagan gaining the White House. Still it meant nothing to me because I had no solid footing to base my voting strength on. I simply lived my life and called it good.
I kind of got a glimpse of my political leanings during the 2000 election. I had heard of Clinton barely, nothing of George W. Bush and read something of Pat Buchanan. He is where my vote would have went if cast. I know a lot more about Buchanan now and he might get my vote if he was running against John Edwards but that's about it. The point is I made my selection, and never cast a vote, because I didn't know any better.
All I am suggesting is that if I had been given the material to read I might have voted earlier because I would have known about the issues and the qualifications, or lack thereof, for each candidate. I am pretty sure I would still be voting Republican and for President Bush but I, and a lot of others, might have cast a vote for President George H. W. Bush and made this entire Iraq thing a moot point. I don't know that the then President Bush would have gone on but he might have in a second term. Conjecture purely but it is an interesting "what if".
I am not seeking mandatory voting. That is something the election process does not need but when nearly one third of your entire country does not vote then something can be fixed. Everyone is entitled to vote, save for the few who have lost the privilege. More might know how to vote if the information was presented a bit earlier.
Is compulsory pre-registration a viable option? I say yes. Is subjecting our children to the vitriol of the election campaigns a "child abuse" issue? Survivor, South Park and the MSM. Need I say more? Is this "big" government come calling? No more so that the Selective Service requirements, the Patriot Act or no-fly lists. But having our children vote might take care of the future none of us will live to see.
I waited 23 years to cast a vote in one of the few countries that allows them. I have cussed my President, railed against my state and just generally pitched a bitch about America. But "What If?" I had been given the information since the age of 15 and still ignored it? Then I would have no right to be a protester, a dissenter or complain because I knew and ignored it.
These words are my 2¢ worth. Agree, flame or ignore me. Your right but just somewhere, someone, consider what I have said and decide. A future long past us may decide the next "most important election of our lifetime" and it is best to be concerned and prepared.
God bless our troops wherever they may be.
No way -- I don't want anyone voting that cannot take the time to go register.
I don't think we should make it too easy to vote. If someone can't figure the process out or is too lazy to go register maybe that's an indication they aren't quite ready to vote. Especially if they're young and ignorant about politics like most of the college kids are.
Hell no! We don't need or want the laxy voting. Let those that have responsibility vote take it upon themself to vote.
Wait.....they already do that!
Good heavens, just when I thought I'd heard it all!
We already have the uninformed voting - no need to add to it. What we DO need is our schools to teach civics and cover current events. In my son's high school class he was the only one who knew who the state senator are. That's pathetic! Heaven forbid these kids had the right to vote.
Registration should be made harder, not easier or mandatory. It should take as much effort as possible to register and even more to vote.
NO!
As a matter of fact, I think it should be harder to register to vote. If a person is too lazy to want to put forth any effort to vote, then they spit on the graves of the many thousands who have died so that they have that right.
No.
...they would be granted the same information as registered voters. Campaign literature, state and federally supplied information and sample ballots. ...All I am suggesting is that if I had been given the material to read I might have voted earlier because I would have known about the issues and the qualifications, or lack thereof, for each candidate.
Given what material to read? The only thing I'm "provided" is perhaps a reminder postcard telling me where my precinct is this year. All of the other information you talk about is available freely to anyone who asks, buys a newspaper, reads Internet sites, etc.
If someone wants to vote, let them expend some energy and register. Voting is not a right... it's a privilege. Let them get off their butt and go do it themselves.
We ought to require folks to hike 10 miles to register to vote - last thing we need is for folks who don't care enough to register voting on candidates & issues they know nothing about.
My favorite voting reform would be to make the ballot difficult enough to fill out that only 50% could do it correctly. That would completely eliminate the democrat vote...
Furthermore, I favor a simple test, something like Hannity does on his Man on the Street interviews.
Something like:
"Name the Vice President."
"Who is Colin Powell?"
"What are the three branches of the federal government?
"What is the Electoral College?"
"Who fought World War II?
And so forth.
Absafriginlutely not
I think they should have to pass a written test regarding our Constitution like we have to to get a drivers license here in Michigan. Maybe if more understood the workings of our government they would think more about the value of their vote.
No.
Heck no, in California you need a PHD in proposition reading, they write the proposition to fool the morons into voting the wrong way.
This is about as senseless as the MANDATORY VOLUNTEERING our high school has considered as a REQUIREMENT for graduation......what an oxymoron!
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