Sometimes I wonder if the USA should make it illegal not to vote like Australia, but then the Aussies confiscated everyone’s guns. And they still have crime.
I say we attach a lottery to voting. Some voter wins a million bucks. Nothing speaks to an American more than easy money.
What impresses me so much about the Parkland activists is that they simply want sensible regulation. They have no desire to take away citizens’ handguns and hunting rifles. That’s a pretty mature view considering what they’ve been through.
At this point, I’m wary of efforts to get greater numbers of uninformed people to vote. Votes based on party loyalty and emotion are a large part of how we got into the mess we’re in. On the other hand, study after study has shown that the greater the percentage of voters, the more favorable it is to those who agree with me on the issues. So I’m conflicted.
I don’t know whether American democracy is repairable in the current generation. But I wonder: when did it become acceptable to graduate students from public school without being able to name the branches of government and their functions? Why is the system of checks and balances as obscure to most people as string theory? It probably would be found unconstitutional to require people to vote in this country, but at least we can teach our kids basic civics. And a generation from now, we might have a functioning democracy again.
Agreed on all points. That’s why one of my paper assignments deals with civics. It is horrific to see how little people know about current events and the political process. Part of that has to do with media, and I don’t mean this or that media is biased, etc. etc. I simply mean the pure white noise of it all. In some ways we were luckier for having only a few television-based news outlets and our diet of newspapers.
Speaking for myself, I’m surprised to find out how little I understand. For years I assumed it was required that presidential candidates share their tax records. I turns out that I’m an idiot.
The Untimely Typewriter:Daily Writings Against the Tides of Distraction 
Sometimes I wonder if the USA should make it illegal not to vote like Australia, but then the Aussies confiscated everyone’s guns. And they still have crime.
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I say we attach a lottery to voting. Some voter wins a million bucks. Nothing speaks to an American more than easy money.
What impresses me so much about the Parkland activists is that they simply want sensible regulation. They have no desire to take away citizens’ handguns and hunting rifles. That’s a pretty mature view considering what they’ve been through.
LikeLike
At this point, I’m wary of efforts to get greater numbers of uninformed people to vote. Votes based on party loyalty and emotion are a large part of how we got into the mess we’re in. On the other hand, study after study has shown that the greater the percentage of voters, the more favorable it is to those who agree with me on the issues. So I’m conflicted.
I don’t know whether American democracy is repairable in the current generation. But I wonder: when did it become acceptable to graduate students from public school without being able to name the branches of government and their functions? Why is the system of checks and balances as obscure to most people as string theory? It probably would be found unconstitutional to require people to vote in this country, but at least we can teach our kids basic civics. And a generation from now, we might have a functioning democracy again.
LikeLike
Agreed on all points. That’s why one of my paper assignments deals with civics. It is horrific to see how little people know about current events and the political process. Part of that has to do with media, and I don’t mean this or that media is biased, etc. etc. I simply mean the pure white noise of it all. In some ways we were luckier for having only a few television-based news outlets and our diet of newspapers.
Speaking for myself, I’m surprised to find out how little I understand. For years I assumed it was required that presidential candidates share their tax records. I turns out that I’m an idiot.
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