[LMB] OT: all-purpose open letter

[Raye Johnsen]

--- Ed Burkhead <edburkhead at insightbb.com> wrote:

> I've speculated recently that, in the growing
> political indifference of the
> population where the majority doesn't vote for
> president, we are getting
> election results with more dominance from the fringe
> crazies.
> 
> I wish I could shake the whole population and tell
> them that we NEED them to
> pay attention, then vote and vote for the best
> interests of the nation, not
> just themselves.

Here in Australia, it is illegal NOT to vote.  If
you're over eighteen, you are legally required to
register on the electoral roll.  The penalty for being
caught unregistered is a fine and being forcibly
registered.  If you're on the roll, you either vote,
have a legally-acceptable reason not to, or pay a
heavy fine.

Truthfully I see no reason to change this. 
Libertarians occasionally will publicly declare that
voting should be a choice, but the general consensus
here is that civil rights do not abrogate civil
responsibilities.  It's annoying and a bit out of
everyone's way to go vote, but it rarely costs much
more than ten minutes' worth of driving and half an
hour at the polling station at most and most voting
booths are at local schools, so many P&F Associations
put on a bit of a sausage sizzle on voting day.

If this puts you in mind of Cordelia's comment in ACC
of how Kareen ought to think about how Beta socially
enforces its population control, maybe it should.  In
Australia, we're basically rewarding people with
social approval for voting and punishing them with
social disapproval for not voting ("Hey, where were
you?  Weren't we going to meet up there?  I was going
to buy you a Coke!"  "You didn't vote?  You lazy
bugger!").  Is there any kind of social reward for
voting in America?

My point is that here, we DO tell the majority to pay
attention, that their votes matter, and that they have
to vote for the best interest of the nation.  Whether
they do or not is still open to debate, and we still
have the fringe parties and the crazies being voted
for and influencing policy.  I don't think a larger
proportion of the population voting is the solution to
biased legislation.  

Raye

raye_j at yahoo.com
http://windtear.livejournal.com
http://www.thejohnsens.com/index.html

I believe in dragons, unicorns, good men
and other mythical creatures.

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