I'm tempted to declare October 2008 the Month the Right to Vote Went Out of Style.
All month long pundits from both the right and left have been voicing their dismay at the idea of so many ignorant, immature and underinformed citizens clogging the polls with their worthless votes.
We can't make important decisions with these people getting in the way!
Peggy Noonan appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe on October 23rd and bemoaned the ignorant youth vote:
"When I was 18 I didn't know whether I was comin' or goin'...We can't adjudicate today, my goodness, should 18-year-old high school seniors have the vote, a vote that equals that of a 70-year-old experienced businessman who's been contributing very practical things all his life."
In 1970, many 18-year-olds didn't know whether they were comin' or goin' either- to Vietnam, that is. The 26th amendment gave these potential draftees the right to vote-- and a voice in foreign policy decisions that could directly affect their lives.
Today many 18-year-olds know exactly where they're goin'-- to Iraq or Afghanistan to serve their country. Their contribution is extremely practical. And for some, it may be all they ever have a chance to contribute in this life.
On October 26th, The Philadelphia Inquirer published an essay by Jonathan Valania titled "White People Shouldn't be Allowed to Vote." Valania states his thesis in the opening paragraph:
"As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don't think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore."
Valania contends that there are too many white bigots in rural America who will never vote for Obama, and complains:
"These people are ruining things for the rest of us white people who are ready to move on."
Valania later admits he's partly joking, but only partly; these unwanted voters are a frightening bunch:
"They are bitter with good reason, and they are armed because they are scared. They mean well, but they are easily spooked."
Take away the votes of all white people, says Valania, so the bigots among them can't make trouble.
John Stossel joined the debate on voter worthiness with an essay posted at Townhall on October 29th. Stossel's criteria for exclusion is not age or ethnicity, but ignorance. To sort out the ignorant from the informed, Stossel travelled to Washington, D.C. armed with photographs of "prominent Americans" such as Joe Biden and Judge Judy. He summarized his results:
"I'm happy to say that everyone recognized Barack Obama and John McCain. But only about half recognized Sarah Palin, and most didn't know Joe Biden. Few people recognized Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but everyone quickly identified TV's Judge Judy."
If facial recognition is the litmus test for voting, I shouldn't vote. I get most of my news from radio reports and the Internet. I had not seen a recent photo of Joe Biden until he was selected as Barack Obama's running mate- but I knew him at once as the primary candidate who called Obama "articulate and bright and clean."
(Which made his selection very surprising to me, btw.)
Similarly, I suspect few people could pick Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of a lineup- but you might get an earful from voters if you mention Supreme Court Decisions on controversial subjects such as eminent domain or affirmative action.
Stossel bolsters his argument by consulting economist Bryan Caplan, author of The Myth of the Rational Voter. Caplan contends that "the public's knowledge of politics is shockingly low," and declares "If someone doesn't know what he's talking about, it really is better if they say, look, I'm going to leave this in wiser hands."
In wiser hands. Whose hands might those be?
Our definition of 'wisdom' has changed repeatedly since 1776. The Founding Fathers believed that only white, property-owning males age 21 and older had the necessary wisdom to cast votes. Until the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, many colonies believed that only Christian Protestants could be trusted with the right to vote. Jews, Catholics and Quakers need not apply.
The states of New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey originally thought that women were wise enough to vote. By 1807 they had been talked out of this irresponsible nonsense and barred women from the polls before they could make any more mischief.
In many states disenfranchised women could commiserate with poor white males; in many states, property restrictions kept them from voting for 68 years.
After all, if they were too lazy and shiftless to own property, how could they be trusted with the vote?
African American males, being considered property, did not receive the right to vote until the 15th amendment was adopted in 1870. Even then, the right merely existed on paper; 'wiser' men would devise ways of keeping them from exercising that right until passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Women were not deemed wise enough to vote until the adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920. (It should be noted that the 14th amendment stripped women of all races of full citizenship, even as it extended citizenship to African American males.)
Native Americans were not considered wise enough to vote in the land that was once theirs until 1924.
In each of these cases, 'wiser' hands took the vote from the unworthy. In each case, the reasoning at the time seemed sound: unlettered men with no property to protect had no real stake in the new nation; women were too emotional; recently freed slaves couldn't possibly understand politics and Native Americans were not 'real' citizens.
I can hear the sighs of frustration, see the eyes rolling now: That's not what we meant and you know it! We don't want to take the right to vote from anyone. We just want to persuade the ignorant and uninformed not to exercise it. For the greater good, you see.
And who are these ignorant and uninformed voters?
Obama supporters say they are people who believe Obama is a 'secret Muslim' and not a natural-born citizen of the United States;
McCain supporters say they are people who don't realize Obama is really a Socialist who 'pals around' with terrorists like Bill Ayers;
Liberals say they are people who don't understand enough political nuances to adopt more open-minded opinions;
Conservatives say they are people who are too brainwashed by 'multi-culti' liberalism to use plain common sense;
Senior citizens say they are callow, self-centered youths.
Young people say they are out-of-touch, bitter old people.
Any list of criteria you could draw up would say more about those doing the excluding than the excluded. It is human nature to imagine that anyone who doesn't share your point of view is misinformed.
It is also human nature for people to vote in their own selfish best interest. This means that, over time, if voting is left to 'wise' people, those people will begin to ignore any considerations outside their own self-interest. The 'greater good' will become confused with their own personal benefit.
This is the kind of thinking that leads to serfdom and sharecropping.
Persuading a person not to vote means convincing them of their own inferiority. The non-voter must truly believe that he or she has so little intelligence or information that his/her opinion simply doesn't count. It also means that the persuader must be convinced of his/her own superiority.
This is particularly insidious. Allow me to quote Abraham Lincoln:
"As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it, 'All men are created equal, except Negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "All men are created equal except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics. When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some other country where they make no pretense of loving liberty- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, without the base alloy of hypocrisy"
Any American who looks closely enough at history and their family tree is sure to find at least one ancestor deemed unworthy to vote during their lifetime. How would you explain to that ancestor your decision to exclude someone else?
And what will you say, someday, to someone who wants to exclude you?
References
About.com: Quotes from Abraham Lincoln
Voting Rights History
A Duty Not to Vote? John Stossel
White People Shouldn't be Allowed to Vote-Jonathan Valania
Peggy Noonan on Morning Joe
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