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I didn't see anything that would lead me to believe that he intends to make voting mandatory in the US.
Quote:
Obama floated the idea of mandatory voting in the U.S. while speaking to a civic group in Cleveland on Wednesday. Asked about the corrosive influence of money in U.S. elections, Obama digressed into the related topic of voting rights and said the U.S. should be making it easier — not harder— for people to vote.
Just ask Australia, where citizens have no choice but to vote, the president said.
He stated a fact about another country, and a fact about this country.
Australia has mandatory voting, and we should be making it easier not harder to vote here.
we should be making it easier not harder to vote here.
A fact that is crushingly obvious to anyone but the ultra-cons, whose goal is to place as many obstacles as possible in the way of people wanting to exercise their democratic choice. But they continue to believe that the real problem with the US is that voter turnout (at 50% or so, averaged across all elections) is too high.
Australia has mandatory voting, and we should be making it easier not harder to vote here.
It IS easy to vote here. It helps, though, if one is motivated enough to get up off the couch and go to a voting booth. It also helps if one takes a moment to educate themselves about the candidates while they are still on the couch prior to going to the voting booth.
As far as illegals having to right to vote, no way Jose. But, we all know this is not the demographic Obama is referring to. No rocket science here people. Maybe the Ferguson debacle could have been avoided if a certain demographic voted in local elections. Don't hold your breath though, unless a new welfare clause is on the ballot.
It IS easy to vote here. It helps, though, if one is motivated enough to get up off the couch and go to a voting booth. It also helps if one takes a moment to educate themselves about the candidates while they are still on the couch prior to going to the voting booth.
As far as illegals having to right to vote, no way Jose. But, we all know this is not the demographic Obama is referring to. No rocket science here people. Maybe the Ferguson debacle could have been avoided if a certain demographic voted in local elections. Don't hold your breath though, unless a new welfare clause is on the ballot.
It's not always as easy as getting off the couch when some places are cutting back on voting hours, removing locations which makes for hours long lines in others. Some people have to work and can't take off to go stand in line for 4 hours to vote.
Of course, it would violate the republican form of government, wherein the people are sovereigns, served - not ruled - by government unless they consent otherwise.
But that's been the goal of all administrations since 1933 - the eradication of that pesky constitution and its promise of the republican form, in Art. 4, Sec. 4.
Weep for America.
It's been over for many a generation.
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