However, a case can be made that no soldier would be allowed to vote.  They represent a HUGE bloc of voters on the payroll of the government, and hence very easy to manipulate.  After all, Mike, from Boot Camp on, manipulating them and getting them to obey orders, jump through hoops (barbed wire, no less!), and charge machine guns is what it’s all about.  Are you telling me that you expect them to be able to actually think about something besides killing people and tearing things up, for 15 seconds, every four years?  It is no argument to say that they are more conservative than the public at large.  (And, actually, they are not.  They are just as much a self-interest group as any other.  As a group, they simply vote FOR more guns and a larger military complex, for obvious self-serving reasons.)

In fact, I’m opposed to allowing any person who works in any capacity for the Federal government, or is retired therefrom, to vote in any Federal election under any circumstances.  I am also opposed to allowing school teachers and school bus drivers to vote in local school board elections.  And certainly the state police and prison employees and bureaucrats who work for state and county governments should not be allowed to vote in State elections.

This plan would reduce those special interests from voting money into their own pockets, and that may well be 1/3 of the voting public, leaving those who PRODUCE and who think independently much more influential.

Now, let’s eliminate all those who receive welfare, government subsidies, government grants, government guaranteed loans, government housing, government largesse or assistance in any tangible form not available to the entire country.  We’ve just reduced the voting pool by another 1/3.

Since we’re down to 34% of the population, (and I’m clearly delusional), I think I’ll go ahead and eliminate the female vote.  Hey, they already control OUR votes, why give them a second one?  Now I’m down to 17%.  And since no person should be allowed to vote before their 35th birthday, I’m guessing I’m down to about 10% of the eligible voters, which means 5% or less of the entire population.  I know, I know, that’s terribly risky, to assume there might be that many people in this country with common sense and the ability to cast an intelligent vote, but that just the risk you take with the entire concept of letting people vote.  Did I mention that only property owners should be allowed to vote?  The rest of you are just a shiftless mob of vagrants, looking for something to steal.

It’s long been recognized that “universal suffrage” and “universal suffering” will ultimately converge.  Why?  It’s long been recognized that, sooner or later, those who vote will vote their own interests over the interests of the nation as a whole.  This “enlightened self interest” is the fatal flaw in that theory known as “democracy” and is probably the number one reason why this nation is in the mess it is in.  We have too much democracy now.  Alexis deTocqueville saw this clearly, way back in the 1830’s, and I paraphrase, “Democracy will last until Americans learn how to pick one anothers’ pockets with the popular vote.”

Well, my friend, that is precisely what has happened.  We have far, far too much democracy in this country today.

Let’s be looking at ways to get fewer, better people to the polls, not more.  I am prepared to discuss a literacy test, that deals with a potential voter’s ability to understand the Declaration and the Constitution, before allowing him (not “her”) to cast a ballot.  Next time.

© Daniel D. New, Permission to copy, with credits, is hereby granted.-