IT’S COMING …
|| By FITSNEWS || Remember “Vote or Die?” It was rapper P. Diddy‘s 2004 campaign to encourage young people to cast their ballots in American political elections.
Well guess what … a decade after Diddy’s “Citizen Change” organization disbanded, “Vote or Die” is making a comeback.
According to U.S. president Barack Obama, the time has come for America to consider mandatory voting. And no, that’s not “Vote or Die,” necessarily, but it is “Vote or Be Cited/ Fined/ Possibly Jailed.”
“In Australia and some other countries, there’s mandatory voting,” Obama said this week during a speech in Cleveland, Ohio. “It would be transformative if everybody voted. That would counteract money more than anything. If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country.”
Okay … but what about individual liberty?
Can government really compel its citizens to vote?
Oh … and what about the lack of anything resembling a real choice in U.S. elections?
Riddle us THAT …
Anyway, in continuing to push the mandatory voting idea Obama invoked race … and class warfare.
“The people who tend not to vote are young, they’re lower-income, they’re skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups,” Obama said. “And they’re often the folks who are there scratching and climbing to get into the middle class and they’re working hard and there’s a reason why some folks try to keep them away from the polls. We should want to get them into the polls.”
Again … really?
Last time we checked Obama’s administration has been a disaster for black people. And for middle and lower class people. So why do poor minorities continue supporting him and his liberal allies?
Oh right … “Republicans.” We forgot.
Look: Civic engagement is obviously a good thing. And the influence of money in politics is clearly a corrosive … and manipulative influence. And nothing ever changes in either major party because the legacy media is in the tank for the powers that be, conditioned to foment meaningless “red v. blue” partisanship while glossing over the marginal differences that really exist between the two parties.
But compulsory voting? Yeah … there’s just no way our system’s ills are ever going to be remedied by forcing people to vote. That’s a violation of the most basic freedoms we have.
In fact our argument to those who would compel voting is simple: Try giving people a real choice as opposed to forcing them to make a false one.
Maybe that would boost turnout …
118 comments
Freed from fear of the next election, he can start doing what he wants to and saying what he really thinks.
But is it really a bad idea? My wife’s home country has mandatory voting for everyone under the age of 65 (they don’t want to twist arms on elderly) – and you get selected for poll work same as jury duty. If everyone voted no one could bitch about poor turnout. Of course, let many folks vote from their iPhone and participation rates would skyrocket.
In this short-attention-span, self-selected-faux-news-consuming, post-factual, idiocracy world, I’m really not sure.
People are required to vote in North Korea….
Channel Stalin Much??…
And I’m guessing, in keeping w/ his Communist background…there is only ONE name on the ballot…HIS…LMAO…
What did I tell y’all???….
Countrise with enforced mandatory voting:
Argentina
Australia Brazil
Cyprus
Ecuador
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
North Korea
Nauru
Peru
Singapore
Uruguay
Schaffhausen canton in Switzerland
You forgot about : UAW and the City of Detroit – right before GM went bankrupt and the City of Detroit went belly-up…
And you HAD to vote for the Democrat (like the USSR)…or else…
Neither the UAW or the City of Detroit is a county, idiot.
Sometimes a compassion requires a little abstracting. And that’s not something the simple-minded are capable of. If it’s not spelled out for you, specifically, you cannot grasp the concept.
So I just suggest you don’t try. Because all you really do is show how limited you are, intellectually.
Obama has indeed been very close to communists in his life. Some who oppose him, though, have actually BEEN communists in their lives. Or their parents or mentors were. Krystol, Wolfowitz, a few other Trotskyite communists who started the neocon movement. Some say a neocon is a liberal that got mugged. More like a communist that got butthurt because the other commies wouldn’t let ’em run the game, so the took their ball and went over to play with their supposed opposites.
Too funny!
Political Commissar Wolfie becomes Reichsmarshall Wolfie
Would you rather be a “a communist that got butthurt “…or a trite, media-led cliché who will say anything, to attract the favor of the common, lockstep political minds….???
Just a question: Is it possible to “track” a person’s individual voting record? For instance, if I always vote republican, is that recorded to my name or voter ID over time? Is it in a database somewhere? I could see this leading to “lists” of potential enemies or “non-supporters” for whomever is in office.
in SC its recorded in the color of your skin
Yeah…if you vote Democrat, you can vote as many times as Melowese Richardson….Can’t you???…LMAO…
Ever hear of the IRS and persecuting Conservatives based on who Obama hates as political enemies…???
It’s not LEADING to it…the Democrats have been doing it…
You can be tracked based on which primary you vote in: R or D…but lots of Ds vote in the R Primary because they have NO chance to get elected, so they vote for the most liberal R…
It’s why the SC-GOP REALLY needs to close its primaries. It’s possibly why we got Graham again for 6 more years. The Ds voted him in…Same w/ McCain winning the primary in 2008….
Didn’t you also solve for the Kennedy killing, and have the “real” story on Pearl Harbor – ha!!! Now closing the primary – that might be a good idea. Keep all the lunitics in one bin – or the other bin.
Now you’re claiming the IRS didn’t do it…and you call those who see Nutjob Global Warming as “Deniers”…LMAO…That’s rich…
THe IRS stopped people from voting now – is that your story?
They could tell if you voted in a “republican” primary but in the generals, they can only tell that you voted. Plenty of people vote in the “other parties” primaries in an effort to throw a monkey wrench into the system. Fortunately they generally are in insufficient numbers to actually affect outcomes.
“…That would counteract money more than anything…”
Not unexpectedly, the exact opposite is true. In most “low turn out” elections, the voters are by and large more informed and more involved in the process.
The only way you could win in an “everybody votes” system is to get your name out there. Getting your name out there costs money. For the life of me, why we would want more stupid/uniformed/no skin in the game people voting is hard to understand
We should go back to restricting the franchise to white male property owners only. That way no “stupid/uniformed/no skin in the game people” could vote
Drop the “white” and “male” parts and I’d agree with you.
What if I live in NYC where many people rent? They can’t vote? What about all the guys working oil fields in North Dakota – living in free apartments from the employer – they can’t vote? Military members living on base? Adults living at home with elderly parents as care givers, or elderly parents living with their kids? Young people in basic training? College students? Someone living on a house boat? I said below – my wife’s home country requires mandatory voting. There are those that complain that it helps the leftist President they have now, but then they had 12 years of conservative Presidents before. And in the last municiple elections the leftist President got creamed in the four largest cities. And if your not a Senior Citizen you get selected for working at the Polls, as if it were jury duty. If you have HS kids you bring them to help as well. I’d be for Mandatory if you could allow me to vote from my iPhone or through a portal.
The “property owner” part is problematic. Maybe substitute “net tax payer” or allow the car our house boat to serve as “property”. The eighteen year old with no job and the ubiquitous “welfare king/queen crack whore” who contribute nothing and have no skin in the game should not have a vote.
Sounds harsh doesn’t it? I keep going back to this quote when I feel like I’m being mean: “..A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
Tell me Colonel, what skin does a defense contractor who pays 5 million a year in taxes and gets back 50 million a year in government money have in the game?
The blood sweat and tears it took to build the business? If he gets 50,000,000 in pay, he’s laid out 45,000,000 in expenses.
Bull shit. Like public employees he is living on the backs of the taxpayer. No skin in the game. Government is a profit center for him. Some congressman he paid got his business a contract. He takes more than he gives. Maybe only people who pay more to the government than they take from government should be allowed to vote. Of course that cuts out all public employees, and most people on Social Security.
Yeah, I know, he didn’t build that. The gubamint just gives him money…
You see thats the problem with the elitist class. They think they are more deserving than a guy who is down on his luck, or a young kid trying to work his way through college, or a waitress working two jobs to support her kids and living in a slum, because that is all she can afford. They think they know better how to run the country and what the country needs. They can’t see that from a taker standpoint, they make a guy on welfare look like a neophyte.
Maybe they are scarfing down a billion dollars a year of taxpayer money on gubment contract. Maybe they work for a University teaching and they are scarfing down 75k to 100k a year in taxpayer money. Some of them have done no more than the kid working on his degree currently. But they sit on their ass and bitch about the poor slob who gets $100 a week in food stamps and cry about the deficit..
We all have skin in the game. Its called real skin. Everybody has a stake in the future of the country. Everybody has a perspective to offer. If we let your system work, we may as well be modern day Russia or any other Oligarchy. A hell hole run by greedy bastards..
Jack, you make my heart bleed. Honestly, you don’t. If you go to NYC and look at old Lady Liberty, I bet you will see a tear falling from her eye.
Public employees actually are getting paid by the public for a service. This idea they’re all sitting around just getting checks is offensive. I guess the Colonel doesn’t earn his paycheck? Or the cop? Or the fire fighter? Or the clerk who records mortgage deeds?
That’s not the point Rocky, the point is to try to eliminate all the influence of those that receive benefit from gov’t monetarily from the voting process….regardless of their “function”.
Those that aren’t “net taxpayers”, have a conflict of interest.
as it should if you want to remain logically consistent and fair…
Still with your “net taxpayer” theme Colonel…it makes more logical sense…in which case of the head of Haliburton, or anyone, can trace more income being received from gov’t than paid in taxes…they shouldn’t get a vote…because they are on a form of the public dole.
Halliburton is estimated to have made over 500 million in profits on the Iraq war. Of course we will never know, because they moved their headquarters to Dubai so they would not have to reveal how much they made. I say they definitely have no skin in the game.
Halliburton is a company, not a voter.
Corporations are people too. Ask Mitt.
“Defense Contractor” nice straw man but I’ll play. We can exclude from the right to vote all gubamint contractors who make more than one million a year.
“net taxpayer”
…means he couldn’t vote.
I might actually agree with the net tax payer part. And to fix it – how about we actually get those who don’t Net Tax Payer to start being tax payers. I’m for tax credits when it’s a family where the parents are young and trying to finish college, but if you’re 32, your wife is 28, you both work and have a child, you should be paying something. My biggest problem with the Bush tax cuts was the candy of the expanded tax credits. In that regard – I fail to see where Bush Rove were conservatives. And remember, I am a liberal.
You are playing into the Republican game. You are only looking at income taxes. The government (Federal and State) is supported by a lot of different types taxes. Even the poorest of us pay some taxes.
“Drop the “white” and “male” parts and I’d agree with you.”
Of course you would!
I’ve advocated it for years. I think the age should be twenty five as well.
I’m amazed we haven’t heard the “Starship Troopers” proposal.
Never bothered with that piece of scifi tripe, what is the “Starship Troopers” proposal?
Why is it ALWAYS about race with liberals?
“Why is it ALWAYS about race with liberals?”
Why is it always a bunch of lies with conservatives?
Typical liberal drivel, answer a question with a question. Dodge, divert, repeat.
“Typical liberal drivel, answer a question with a question. Dodge, divert, repeat.”
Typical conservative crapola. Tosses some shit against the wall and hopes that it sticks. Shit, toss, sniff.
Damn, i can go along with that. At least they will respect the property of others and not try to take it from them.
Can you imagine, they would have to suspend all national and local programing.
It’d be wall to wall political advertising. I was in Jordan during their last elections. The advertising was nuts, but in a system where you’re expected to vote and large parts of your society are poorly/un educated that’s how it’s done.
Obviously you weren’t in Florida in 2012. Holy cow. It was like Mitt TV. 24/7.
No, think God, I wasn’t.
I woke up election day in 2012 in Florida – got my coffee at the concierge room, sat down, and watched six full minutes of Romney ads. Unreal!!! So I tuned into Telemundo – at least there the weather lady was hot looking.
Hot, hot, hot…
Why, it works in Australia.
This ain’t Oz.
“Not unexpectedly, the exact opposite is true. In most “low turn out” elections, the voters are by and large more informed and more involved in the process.”
And you would know this how? Obviously just making it up as you go along . . .
I’ll find the study for you when I get out of Wally World.
“I’ll find the study for you when I get out of Wally World. ”
Don’t bother. I can scour the internet and find “a study” to back up just about anything. But you were just making it up as you went along as it sounded good. How much is “low turnout”? And you can vouch for everyone of those low turnout voters that they are more informed than who? How in the world could you know that they are “more involved in the process”? More involved than who? Total BS.
Said I would do here it is. The take away quote: “… Six-in-ten intermittent voters say they sometimes don’t know enough about candidates to vote compared with 44% of regular voters the single most important attitudinal difference between intermittent and regular voters identified in the survey…”
http://www.people-press.org/2006/10/18/who-votes-who-doesnt-and-why/
Why we would want a bunch of misinformed, duped,out of touch, Fox News, Glenn Beck, & Rush Limbaugh watchers voting is hard to understand. Is there anyway to stop those idiots from voting. If so, lets do it.
Can we at lest agree the Koch brothers should not be allowed to give Ted Cruz a billion dollars to run his campaign.
I think there’s a law against that. ..
Yes but Republicans, including Ted Cruz, are trying to change the law to allow that.
But they can spend unlimited amounts on ads, flyers, etc as long as they don’t “coordinate” with the candidate. That is to say, unlimited money to a candidate.
Is there a law against how much you can give a PAC?
Since Obama took office I’ve been scratching and climbing to stay in the middle class. Mandatory voting means droves of uninformed voters, the same electorate that put him in office twice. Of course he wants more of that.
“Of course he wants more of that.”
You are so full of shit that it oozes from each and every pore . . .
“Of course he wants more of that.”
Republicans are doing everything that they possibly can at every level of government to restrict voting hours and restrict voter registration.
Richland county voting commission is eaten up with democrats, I witnessed voter suppression first hand at my precinct in the 2012 election. Of course Holder refused to open an investigation. It’s not just Republican trying to move the goal posts.
“It’s not just Republican trying to move the goal posts.”
LOL I don’t believe anything you post. You are obviously delirious from your Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Hell, that’s the teaparty that is uninformed as well as all those that voted for Ted Cruz and Walker.
I relished the way NIMRATA used them, then threw them down liked a USED RUBBER!
YOU BETCHA!!!!!!!!!I can Earhardt from my house!
Well, it worked for Venezuela.
What? Oh….
Serious Question: would this make third parties more viable because people would be forced to vote and still might not want to vote for either of the main parties
Yes, it would.
They should call the proposed law the “mandatory stupidity” law.
A better solution would be to make Election Day a national holiday or move it to a Saturday. That way working people are more likely to vote. Oh, wait. People who work for a living are not the ones that the obamanation wants voting.
“People who work for a living are not the ones that the obamanation wants voting.”
Another one full of shit.
You sound like a child.
You can add angry.
Insufferable, angry child.
“Insufferable, angry child.”
Dipshit.
Ding ding ding – today’s winner.
Dipshit, full of shit, Shit, toss, sniff.
You’re a really brain trust aren’t you.
“You’re a really brain trust aren’t you.”
You’re really an asshole aren’t you.
“You can add angry.”
LOL Have you turned on the lights in the basement yet?
“You sound like a child”
You sound like you’re full of shit – guess your handle is appropriate, huh?
TOUCHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* “Douche!!!!!”
Fecal Matter was the name of Kurt Kobain’s first band, it’s a nod to that.
“Fecal Matter was the name of Kurt Kobain’s first band, it’s a nod to that.” <br.
So? Big fucking deal.
You’re the idiot that seems to be so hung up on my screen name, just thought a friendly explanation would shut you the fuck up.
Fecal Matters with a big ASSHOLE. LOL
Go kill yourself. I am sure no one would miss you.
Just another grace-filled, tolerant, compassionate liberal…thanks for showing us who progressives really are…
“Go kill yourself. I am sure no one would miss you”
Of course you would miss me Pogo. Are you so pathetic that you have to make up all these different posting names and up-vote yourself over and over and over?? Chickenshit weenie.
You can bet your ass on that. Apparently those dumb idiots that he use to count on, are turning on him or, else, just flexing their dumb give a crap attitude, again.
I don’t believe it should be manditory but I certainly agree that Election Day should be on Saturdays for EVERY election (local,state & national) – I’ve thought that for many years.
That way schools that are used for polling places on Tuesdays won’t be closed and may even boost productivity at the workplace just a “micro-smidgeon”
Making voting more convenient gives the rightwing nuts the “heebie-jeebies”
I think only rich white people should vote. You must own land, be able to read and write, be employed, and go to a Protestant church. Oh, I see, that’s the Republican Party……..
So you’re saying Catholics can’t read?
So you’re saying Catholics can’t read?
O sybili. Si ergo.
Fortibuses in ero…
O Nobili Demi Trux
Sewatis enim?
Causen dux.
Thanks a lot, I went into the kitchen to find my twelve year old’s Latin dictionary – then I tried sounding it out…
Google translate will make it much easier for you, cut & paste, and sip some coffee.
Yeah, try that with Tom’s ode.
Just FYI, Google translate will generally get you the gist of the conversation but don’t count on it for more than that.
Tom decided to improve his vocabulary by learning three new words every day. After a week none of his friends could understand anything he said. Is there another word for synonym?
Si civile, sedibus
O nobile, deis trux
Vadis enim?
Causam dux
My version from Latin I 59 years ago
At an international medical conference two African surgeons are having an argument. ‘I tell you it sounds like “wooooom”,’ says one. ‘You’re wrong,’ says the other. ‘It sounds like “woombba”.’ ‘You’re both wrong,’ says a passing French surgeon. ‘In English it is pronounced “womb”’. ‘Ridiculous,’ replies one of the Africans. ‘I wager that you have never even seen a wild hippopotamus, let alone heard one fart underwater.
A woman lands at Logan Airport in Boston. She jumps into a cab and says to the cabbie, ‘Take me to a place where I can get scrod.’ The cabbie turns round and says, ‘That’s the first time I’ve heard that said in the pluperfect subjunctive
Wouldn’t work TMC. The EEEVIL white men would just grant women, then minorities suffrage.
TBG wonders if women or minorities ever came to have exclusive voting rights…would they “enfranchise” white males?
Instead of a penalty for not voting, let’s just pay people to vote. No. That would cost taxpayers too much. I know. Let’s let voters sell their vote to the highest bidder.
A true libertarian would be for legal sale of marijuana, sex and your vote. It’s done by representatives and senators all the time. It works in Chicago.
I’ve got it. No food stamps and no welfare unless you vote. There that will show them.
Fuck Obama. Fuck that ugly angry black woman wife of his, too. Both are pig shits. Try to make me vote if I do not want to vote. Try to punish people who do not wish to vote, and they will likely lock and load in massive numbers and go after these fucked up politicians who think they OWN you. Come on you pussy ass politicians. I DARE YOU … Push tens of millions to come after you with assault weapons in tow.
Does this mean those who are incarcerated for crimes like murder and child molestation get to vote? Does their vote count the same as a tax-paying, law-abiding citizens with no criminal convictions?
So Hussein wants the US to be like North Korea. Who wuddah thunk? Hope and change! Hope and change!
No he wants the US to be like Australia.
PRO TIP:
SLED DOG RULE–
If you ain’t the lead dog…the scenery never changes.
Full voter participation won’t change the powers that be…it will only give them more “legitimacy”. TBG for one never bitches about low voter turnout. Sure everyone thinks their candidate would have done better…