re: #419 Dark_Falcon

that and the fact that they’re out after the general election. Several of the more radically right-wing board members lost their primary fights but are still in office till the general elections that are still more than 7 months away. Thus they feel free to let their freak flag fly, since public hostility cannot effect them now.

To carry the argument from reading the Republic and Locke and Hobbes and Rousseau… Democracy fails when the people are not worthy of it.

Democracy fails when they elect madmen.

While I am all for democracy and would not like t see it replaced, the limitation of the system is that the stupid vote too - and for stupid things for stupid reasons.

The Founding Fathers were well aware of this. They fully understood the notion of the “tyranny of the majority.”

If I had my way, and I were building a nation and a system of government, I would take a page from Heinlein.

You can have all the benefits of citizenship except voting, unless you serve society in some way.

I would not limit it to military service, I would include as many different types of service as possible - from a year helping in a nursing home to teaching, to being a fireman. It would be completely voluntary. If you don’t do this sort of thing, no penalty, go out, have your day job, live your life, but you do not get a voice in a society you did not care about to serve.

At that point, everyone who votes has a real idea of what the problems society faces are - and more importantly, already proved that they gave a damn about more than just themselves.