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TheCatt wrote:

Leisher wrote: If you don't know how to properly fill out a fucking ballot, you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Hmmm. Part of me agrees, but most of me thinks it should be as easy as possible, which isn't quite the case.

I tend to think the "easy as possible" route gives us poor results. Compare HUD housing to homes bought through regular home owners' loans. We are getting politicians that are the equivalent of HUD housing.

Vince wrote:

TheCatt wrote:

Leisher wrote: If you don't know how to properly fill out a fucking ballot, you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Hmmm. Part of me agrees, but most of me thinks it should be as easy as possible, which isn't quite the case.

I tend to think the "easy as possible" route gives us poor results. Compare HUD housing to homes bought through regular home owners' loans. We are getting politicians that are the equivalent of HUD housing.

I won't argue the results are terrible. But the principle we have is 'make voting easy'... ostensibly 'as easy as possible'

I don't know if I agree with that. Maybe there needs to be the bare minimum of effort involved, just to ensure the person voting has at least 2 brain cells to rub together. Maybe that barrier is as simple as, "Can procure an ID card, and transport himself to a polling place."

Why make it so easy that even people in comas can do it That isn't working well for Chicago, for example.

I have an idea...If you want to vote or even run for office, you need to have completed some federal service.

Leisher wrote: I have an idea...If you want to vote or even run for office, you need to have completed some federal service.

Man Law.

Leisher wrote: I have an idea...If you want to vote or even run for office, you need to have completed some federal service.

And it's the late 1700s again

And also the future!

I was channeling Heinlein.

TheCatt wrote: And it's the late 1700s again

Serious question, why is something a bad idea just because it's old? I'm still believe in sex, fire, the wheel, not murdering innocents, etc. Those were good ideas.

We are trying to maintain a civilization here, and people would inevitably be more vested in their country and community if they had a stake or personal vestment in it.

My company is an ESOP and people here are more vested than any other company I'm worked for.

Catt once made a statement about a more educated population being a good thing. (college thread) If that's correct, and I do believe it is, wouldn't getting people out of their bubbles to experience their country and the people in it be educational? Wouldn't it make them more informed voters?

And no, this isn't just about "join the military". We've gone over this idea before, but why not a new branch (not the space force) that does peacekeeping/rescue work? A strictly in country organization that arrives to help when natural disasters hit, helps fight fires in the west, secures the borders, helps at polling stations, keep CNN reporters out of the White House, can provide backup in cities suffering crime waves (like Chicago)(and I mean for them to patrol lower crime areas while the cops patrol the higher crime areas), etc.

And yes, I know the danger of such a branch, but it's the same as simply having a military.

In the past, disenfranchising the ignorant peasantry led to uprisings, and beheadings.

Now, we can just give them more weed and XBox Live, to keep them from rising up.

I say we go back to disenfranchising the braindead.

Leisher wrote: I was channeling Heinlein.

I know, we've discussed it here before. But also reminiscent of the "only men with land can vote," etc.

I feel like people are already inherently invested in their country.

TheCatt wrote:

Only problem here is, there is NEVER an Ice Cream Cone option. It's always closer to a Kick to the Head or losing a Pinky. To imply there's ever an Ice Cream Cone option shows extremely biased reporting.

TheCatt wrote:I feel like people are already inherently invested in their country.

I'd say they are inherently invested in what they get from their country. The merit of the land owner rule was that they were the only ones with "skin in the game" as it were since there was no income tax. Now that there is a federal income tax, this is remedied in theory. Though I think the taxpayer writing a check to the IRS every month instead of automatic withdrawal would fix that. And taxing everything above the poverty rate. Isn't it like 40% of people that don't pay any income tax? Once we hit 50% of people drawing more out of the system than they're putting in, we'll go into a spiral that will drive out the wealth producers. It'll get ugly fast.

Vince wrote: Isn't it like 40% of people that don't pay any income tax?

Many of them pay payroll taxes, just not federal income tax.

Georgia Sec'y of State (who was running for governor and won), had claimed 2-3 days before the election that the Democratic Party had hacked the Georgia registration system.

Here's what actually happened

What appears to have happened, according to the investigative report, is that a Georgia voter with a background in software development logged on to the secretary of state’s My Voter Page to check his registration information. While there, he found “two significant security flaws”: one allowed users to download any file on the system, and the other allowed users to “download anyone’s data,” including personally identifiable information.
...
The man who discovered all of this sounded the alarm by alerting a good-governance group and the voter-protection hotline at the Georgia Democrats’ headquarters, according to the report. That was how the Democrats became involved.

Eventually, lawyers representing the secretary of state were notified of the security vulnerability. And you can guess what Kemp did with that information. (One thing he didn’t do is notify the State Election Board, the newspaper said.)

Shouldn't people who cheat in elections be tried for treason? Point being, shouldn't the penalty be death?

I don't care if you're R, D, I, G, whatever. If you knowingly attempt to rig an election, you should either be facing life in prison or a firing squad.