The Privilege to Vote
I still subscribe to that bastion of right-wing conservatism called The Economist. It was part of a deal to get a whole bunch of Asia Miles.
Anyway, for the upcomign US elections, they run a column on some interesting quotes heard on the campaign trail, surprisingly enough called “On the trail”. The latest edition sports the following quote:
“I’m scared to death when the left, the hippies, the MTV parolees go, ‘Just get out and vote’. That’s not good enough. It’s like saying, ‘Well, there’s a child drowning in the river. Just do something. Here, I’ll throw him a cinder block.’ …I see this ‘Just vote” from Puffy, Daddy, or whatever he is, to be frightening, pipe-dream, fantasy-world, youth ignorance.” - Ted Nugent on P.Diddy’s “Citizen Change” get-out-the-vote initiative. US News and World Report, September 27th
I happen to agree with him on that. Sure, you have the right to vote but you also have the right to go out and educate yourself first so that you can make an informed decision about the future direction of your country. But it’s not just the left that can be acccused of “blind” voting. The right also seems quite capable of getting their uneducated masses out to vote.
I’m a little hazy on my Athenian democracy but I seem to recall that it was only folk that got to a certain education level that got to vote. Giving people the right to vote makes them lazy and keeps them ill-informed. Giving people the privilege to vote forces people to go forth and earn the right to vote. If you knew that your right to determine the course of your country’s future depended you having a minimal level of education, and you really wanted a say in that and make a difference, you would go out and get that education.
