I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

cjhsa wrote:

That is the image you have of hunters and fisherman?

My you date yourself.

No more than you date yourself by that image of bird watchers that you conjured up out of thin air.

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Merry Andrew wrote:

cjhsa wrote:
That is the image you have of hunters and fisherman?

My you date yourself.

No more than you date yourself by that image of bird watchers that you conjured up out of thin air.

Hardly, I know the anti's target audience quite well.

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Cjhsa
Because i think big money already has too much effect on our form of government. I think a citizen should only have one vote, not a 100,000+.

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OK, and by making more than $100K a year, if I did, I would get more than one vote?

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Re: I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

BubbaGumbo wrote:

I'm not in favor of any form of legislation that would prevent certain sects of people from voting or in favor of a voting apptitude test, as these would be grossly undemocratic and have far-ranging detrimental effects to society.

This might sound tempting at first sight, but I think it creates more severe problems than it solves:

1) Legitimicy: Why should any grownups follow laws they had now vote on? Why should they pay taxes to a government they had no chance to oppose at the polling booth? Whatever happened to "no taxation without representation"?

2) Abuse of power: Who tests the testers? How do you make sure this doesn't just degenerate into disenfranchising unpopular minorities?

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Re: I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

BubbaGumbo wrote:

If you're uniformed, you should stay home when the polls are open and leave voting to the people that respected their civic duty by taking the time and effort to understand the issues and candidates they are voting on.

I agree, and have said so many times in the past.

10-14-06: "I favor restricting the franchise. I think far too many people vote now, and if there is some method to discourage the uninformed, the misguided, the confused, and the just-plain-dumb from voting, I'm all for it."

2-23-06: "Which all goes to reinforce my long-held opinion that people, in general, should not be allowed to vote."

8-8-05: "We must do everything in our limited power to discourage the masses from voting. It's dangerous and it does them no good."

5-27-04: "The country does not lack good candidates for public office, it lacks qualified voters. We do not, as a society, suffer from a low level of voter participation, we would instead profit from even fewer people turning up at the polls. We should not be encouraging people to vote, we should instead be looking for ways to restrict the franchise."

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Re: I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

joefromchicago wrote:

2-23-06: "Which all goes to reinforce my long-held opinion that people, in general, should not be allowed to vote."

What do you think about Douglas Adams' reciprocal statement? "It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves into a position of power should on no account be allowed to do the job. "

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Re: I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

Thomas wrote:

joefromchicago wrote:
2-23-06: "Which all goes to reinforce my long-held opinion that people, in general, should not be allowed to vote."

What do you think about Douglas Adams' reciprocal statement? "It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves into a position of power should on no account be allowed to do the job. "

Mr. Adams (a third-rate hack writer) was not original with this thought. Long, long before Mr. Adams revved-up his personal promotion machine with puerile tales, Isaac Azimov wrote that the desire to hold public office ought automatically to disqualify the candidate.

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Re: I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

Setanta wrote:

Mr. Adams (a third-rate hack writer) was not original with this thought. Long, long before Mr. Adams revved-up his personal promotion machine with puerile tales, Isaac Azimov wrote that the desire to hold public office ought automatically to disqualify the candidate.

Well, I see no room for agreement about Mr. Adams the "hack writer". But if you show me the the Asimov citation with a credible pre-80s timestamp, I'll be happy to attribute the quote to him in the future.

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I've been searching for the quote online, but although quotes of Azimov are easy to find, one usually finds that same quotes again and again, and they are the more contentious quotes on religion and science, as well as quotes of his "laws of robotics" (which i cannot for the life of me understand as being "quotable"). Mr. Azimov's body of work dwarfs that of the great majority of writers, and all that i can recall of that quote of his is that it was in a later portion of the either the "Robots and Empire" series (most likely) or in the "Foundation" series (possible).

If i find it, i'll post it. However, whether or not you attribute the remark to Adams or to Azimov is not a something which will much exercise my mind--much as i don't care if you are unable to compare Adams to other writers in English, and recognize that both his ideas and his style of expression are mediocre.

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Asimov wrote the very same words in a story called Evidence written in 1946. I don't have an online quote of it, but I know he wrote it because I just read the book a few weeks ago.

I'll hunt up the copy tonight and post the exact wording.

BTW, I don't think Adams was a hack at all, but quite funny.

Cycloptichorn

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As for your question, which i know was not directed at me, the idea, whether one attributes it to Adams or to Azimov, is one of my favorites, although i recognize that it has two huge problems. It implies that all public office ought to be appointive, at which point one has the problem of determining who ought to be responsible for such appointments; and it ignores Lord Acton's dictum: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

As i have the time, i'll look for the quote.

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Well, Cyclo, i originally found Adams amusing, as well. However, over time, his writing palled for me, and i don't consider it to be great art. That is not to ignore that he has been successful with his writing, and will likely continue to be--i'm just not impressed with him.

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with what i've seen of politics lately, i'm opposed to any movement that encourages anyone to vote

don't rock the vote, block the vote

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Re: I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

Thomas wrote:

What do you think about Douglas Adams' reciprocal statement? "It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves into a position of power should on no account be allowed to do the job. "

I agree.

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Here's a Democrat who wants to empower his natural constituency.

Quote:

State Senate President Richard Codey introduced a bill Monday that would remove language from the New Jersey constitution that was designed more than 150 years ago to prevent people suffering from mental illness or handicap from casting their vote in national, state or local elections.

Codey wants to eliminate a section that says "no idiot or insane person should enjoy the right of suffrage" and substitute with a reference to "a person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting."

Link

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MizunoMan wrote:

Here's a Democrat who wants to empower his natural constituency.

Sounds like a legislator who wants to remove outdated, offensive, and hopelessly vague terminology with something that might actually be legally enforceable, without altering the basic goal of the provision. But don't worry, MizunoMan, it seems clear that he's not trying to take the vote away from illiterates.

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joefromchicago wrote:

But don't worry, MizunoMan, it seems clear that he's not trying to take the vote away from illiterates.

Damned good thing, too . . . that would spell the death of the Republican Party.

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I'm opposed to movements that encourage everyone to vote

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