I'm convinced more than ever that people should have to take a knowledge test before they're allowed to vote in a national election.
Just saw research poll results that after seven years in office, more than 31% of Americans do not even know who the current U.S. Vice President is (Cheney). Less than half know who the current Speaker of the House is (Pelosi), and only 29% can name the Senate Majority Leader (Reid).
It seems grossly unfair and extremely dangerous that a vote by someone who is informed and attentive to the real issues confronting this country can be cancelled out by the vote of an uninformed idiot who has no clue what's going on.
I propose that before we're allowed to go the ballot box on election day, everyone ought to be forced to take a 10-question test about current events. If you can't pass the test, you can't vote. Go home and read a newspaper and come back and try again in four years.
Imagine the howlings of the ACLU, the 'politically correct', the 'victim' lobby and the liberal left over this one. Actually requiring voters to have a brain and not just a pulse to pull the lever. What a concept.
By the way, even that's stretching the current requirements a bit. Right now, in some elections, a pulse is purely optional.
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But what percentage of those who don't know that stuff do you think actually bother to vote? Here apathy is rife - I think our last General Election had the lowest turnout ever.
I know so many people my age who have never voted, which I find shocking. Just because their little world is ok, they don't think politics affect them - and these are otherwise pretty intelligent people.
I'm hoping the uninformed don't vote much, but by the results of some of these elections, it appears that they do.
In the last presidential election, there were instances of homeless people being offered cigarettes to come in and cast a vote for a particular candidate. I seriously doubt these were people making an "informed" decision.
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