"Voting is a bloody, disgusting, awful mess. It is hateful and hurtful and horrid. People who vote should be required to attend every tax foreclosure in their district. They should be required to spend time in their local jail and in their regional prisons reviewing the conditions of prisoners and talking to them about their incarceration—often for non-violent crimes relating to the possession of contraband goods or the provision of contraband services. Voters should be forced to spend time directly experiencing the conditions that their votes place others in. But, such requirements would be dreadfully unpopular, and the voters would be sure to vote against such requirements."
The idea voters should be responsible and aware of what they're doing is definitely the opposite of what the state wants as far as voter behavior. Democracy is a popularity contest no matter how you slice it. There is a fundamentally unserious nature to the whole affair. On top of that, the powers that be want very much for the average voter to be dumb as dirt, and just as ignorant. After all, voters are the excuse the state uses to justify and legitimize itself. Of course we vote for people, and those people then go to D.C. and spend their time voting for various pieces of paper so that voters don't have to spend all their time voting instead of generating tax dollars. I wonder what sort of horrors would spring forth if the government paid everyone to vote. More so than the Democrats do now, I mean.
"Voting is a bloody, disgusting, awful mess. It is hateful and hurtful and horrid. People who vote should be required to attend every tax foreclosure in their district. They should be required to spend time in their local jail and in their regional prisons reviewing the conditions of prisoners and talking to them about their incarceration—often for non-violent crimes relating to the possession of contraband goods or the provision of contraband services. Voters should be forced to spend time directly experiencing the conditions that their votes place others in. But, such requirements would be dreadfully unpopular, and the voters would be sure to vote against such requirements."
The idea voters should be responsible and aware of what they're doing is definitely the opposite of what the state wants as far as voter behavior. Democracy is a popularity contest no matter how you slice it. There is a fundamentally unserious nature to the whole affair. On top of that, the powers that be want very much for the average voter to be dumb as dirt, and just as ignorant. After all, voters are the excuse the state uses to justify and legitimize itself. Of course we vote for people, and those people then go to D.C. and spend their time voting for various pieces of paper so that voters don't have to spend all their time voting instead of generating tax dollars. I wonder what sort of horrors would spring forth if the government paid everyone to vote. More so than the Democrats do now, I mean.