{"id":8640,"date":"2015-03-19T16:13:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T16:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8640"},"modified":"2015-03-19T16:13:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T16:13:53","slug":"mandatory-voting-bad-idea-mr-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=8640","title":{"rendered":"Mandatory voting? Bad idea, Mr. President"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

President Obama believes big money has too much influence in determining who gets elected.<\/p>\n

I agree with him.<\/p>\n

He also suggests that mandatory voting is a constructive reform that would counteract big money’s pervasive idea.<\/p>\n

I disagree with that idea.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/obama-suggests-mandatory-voting-might-be-a-good-idea\/<\/p>\n

The president spoke at a town hall and pitched the idea of requiring citizens to vote to an audience. He said other countries require it. He cited Australia as one example.<\/p>\n

Allow me to argue that one\u00a0of the many aspects\u00a0of\u00a0“American exceptionalism” is the notion that Americans are free to vote or not vote. We proclaim our love of liberty and while I bemoan constantly the hideous voter turnouts — particularly in state and local elections — I remain enough of an optimist to think we can browbeat complacent citizens to get off their duffs and vote.<\/p>\n

We elect presidents with, say, 60 percent turnouts. Political scientists are happy to see that kind of turnout. I find it disgraceful. That means 40 percent<\/em> of the eligible population doesn’t care enough to vote for those seeking to lead the greatest nation on Earth.<\/p>\n

But should we force<\/em> people to vote?<\/p>\n

I’m dubious of that requirement. The freedoms we enjoy should include the freedom to be apathetic. It’s individuals’ call.<\/p>\n

Besides, requiring people to vote removes the great political putdown that many Americans — myself included — are proud to utter when the situation presents itself: If you haven’t voted, then keep your trap shut.<\/p>\n

But, yes, the president is correct about one aspect of his remarks. Big money wields way too much power.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama believes big money has too much influence in determining who gets elected. I agree with him. He also suggests that mandatory voting is a constructive reform that would counteract big money’s pervasive idea. I disagree with that idea. http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/obama-suggests-mandatory-voting-might-be-a-good-idea\/ The president spoke at a town hall and pitched the idea of requiring citizens … Continue reading Mandatory voting? Bad idea, Mr. President<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[540,2877,3716,5130,5137],"class_list":["post-8640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-mandatory-voting","tag-presidential-elections","tag-voter-apathy","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}