Does President Obama Love America?

 by Bill asked:

How did we allow an avowed enemy of America's founding principles and spirit to occupy the highest office of the land?  

Two words: universal suffrage.

The voting franchise has become completely and utterly devalued where any fool who can at least plausibly prove citizenship and an age of 18 or older gets a say in how matters are run regardless of ignorance of how they ought to run.

A particulatrly vicious way this feeds on itself is to use the current redistribution to justify further redistribution by bullying into silence the critics of redistribution, e.g.:

"You were educated in government schools so you have no right to criticize redistribution!"

"Your family went on WIC for a number of years  so you have no right to criticize redistribution!"

"Your hero, Ayn Rand, went onto Medicare with her husband near the end of her life  so you have no right to criticize redistribution!"

Notice how concrete-bound this thinking is.  No creativity or imagination is employed to reason any other way for things to be.  I find it extremely frustrating and conclude:

We are doomed.

Enjoy the decline, folks, enjoy the decline.

(Edited by Luke Setzer on 2/28, 12:41pm)

I asked, How did we allow an avowed enemy of America's founding principles and spirit to occupy the highest office of the land?

Luke replied, Two words: universal suffrage.

The voting franchise has become completely and utterly devalued where any fool who can at least plausibly prove citizenship and an age of 18 or older gets a say in how matters are run regardless of ignorance of how they ought to run.

I think a more fundamental problem is the absence of a constitutional republic that is strictly limited to the protection of individual rights, and does not allow the electorate to vote in policies, or legislators to pass laws, that violate those rights.  It is the failure to recognize that our political system is not properly a democracy -- a system of unlimited majority rule -- but a republic that permits voters to cast their ballots only for measures consonant with the rights of its citizens.

Jules, that's an excellent point, and one that had not occurred to me.  Why give the recipients of theft the means of continuing it?!

Speaking of allowing the wrong people to vote, here's a YouTube video that shows what we're up against:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI8UPHMzZm8&feature=youtu.be

A woman who has had a few accidents with deer would like the deer crossing signs to be moved so that the deer would cross at safer locations.  Listen and weep!

(Edited by William Dwyer on 2/28, 9:28pm)

I'm guessing that deer crossing woman was scripted, not real/honest.

There is a part two to the deer lady youtube.  She is talking to the radio talkshow host about how her friends had been teasing her and how dumb she felt.  It sounded very real to me.  

Lots of people get it into their heads, as a kind of general background assumption, that things always happen because government, or corporations, or some authority figure makes it happen.... a child-like perception of the world - she just had her mind turned off (maybe her normal state?) and didn't question her initial thought that deer were crossing there because that is where they were 'supposed to' cross.  Instead she was focused on her irritation over the danger of deer crossing at that location.  

I've seen far worse, sad to say.  Which is why I think that voting should require some kind of test to show that the person grasps the basic principles of a constitutional republic and the dangers inherent in large, unlimited government and can demonstrate enough intelligence to understand the questions asked and come up with an answer.

And a poll tax, say $20, to weed out those not that motivated.  And there should be no absentee voting except for military - everybody votes on the same day.  And a photo ID would be a must.  And all votes would have to be cast at a polling place, no mail in votes.  Registration should also require the photo ID be shown at a polling place - no DMV drive thru registration - and it would need to be completed about a month before the election day so that there was time to validate the registered voters.  And, I agree with Luke.  To avoid the obvious conflict of interest no one who is on welfare should be able to vote.  And no one who works for the government, or for a company that makes most of its money on government contracts.  

Voting should be more like choosing a jury.  You want to eliminate those with a conflict of interest, poorly motivated, or too stupid to get simple questions right.  The purpose of the jury is to intelligently determine the facts of the case so as to achieve justice, and the purpose of the vote is to intelligently select between the candidates or issues to best protect liberty.

Voting isn't some holy, sacred right - it is a mechanism, one of many, designed to reduce the chances of government becoming dictatorial.  When voting is abused badly enough it becomes a cover for tyranny (like the obscenity of people 'voting' in the Soviet Union).

"Hence forth all deer crossings shall be in low traffic areas, and any deer that attempts to cross in an unauthorized or unmarked area shall be fined up to $200 per occurence."    Something like that?  

Stacy, you do realize that there might be people who suspect from the last name you gave that you are truly a llama and only pretending to be a person for the point of getting better crossings.