Musicmystery
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ORIGINAL: NorthernGent
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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
"William Galston thinks the key to less polarization in the electorate is compulsory voting. It's the disaffected, the angry, who vote. If everyone — including those in the less intense middle — voted, you would get fewer ideologues in office.
We have a similar issue over here......in that the turn out at general elections ranges from 50 to 70% dependent upon area.
I don't think compulsory voting is the answer. There's not a great deal of use in forcing people to vote who by and large don't care anyway.
Before I heard this argument (and granted, Panda, beyond an interesting take, nothing guarantees it would work as described), I'd have opposed mandatory voting too. Why herd the apathetic and ignorant to the polls? But his case for disenchanted voters has me reconsidering. Yes, it's a civic duty in my view, but as economist Buchanan pointed out, some people will weigh the benefits of doing other things vs. going to vote, especially if they see the process as holding little meaning.
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But I would advocate a test being in place in order to establish the credentials of those voting.
We can't do this--in the past, various tests were used explicitly to weed out black voters. It's a civil rights issue here.
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ORIGINAL: eyesopened
In my perfect world mud-slinging and smear would be illegal. Television ads would have to be limited to the candidate him/herself providing their resume of qualifications and their views on issues and any special bills they would likely propose.
I hear ya, but this violates the First Amendment. I'd like to see truth in advertising laws apply, but that also stretches the First Amendment for a campaign, and would result in mountains of legal challenges to various allegations. Perhaps we could see television ads banned, but it's a major money maker for broadcasters, and anyway, everything would just move to the Internet.
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ORIGINAL: Newnshiny
As things stand in the US right now, making everyone vote would be a logistical nightmare. We're talking buses needed, massive crowds, major confusion. It would be basically a big ol' mess.
Not necessarily. We could (and already should, I think) make Election Day a national holiday. We could also (Galston alludes to this) increase absentee voting (and, essentially, voting by mail).
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ORIGINAL: Real0ne
good idea and before the ink dried they would have a stack of class action suits on the bench from the nationals.
The threat of a potential suit is no reason not to act. If it were, nothing would ever be done. If the courts need to sort it out, so be it.
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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy
So then more issues should come to national referendum?
That seems fair.
Not at all. That's a separate topic--and one I'll always oppose. Governance is making choices, and as California demonstrates all too well, pulling apart separate matters for independent popular votes is a recipe for ongoing disaster.
The founders opposed this too. We vote for representatives. Those representatives then exercise their best judgment. If we don't like the results, we can change representatives.
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ORIGINAL: NorthernGent
I think part of the answer is local power....people with a chance to shape their community's future are more likely to take an interest.
I can't speak to this issue in the U.K., but here, people do have local power. They all too rarely use it, perhaps, but it's not at all difficult to do, and effectively.
Many voters, too, are happy with their local representatives. The mess we're seeing is the overbearing nature of national party politics, especially since "entertainment" became accepted as "news" and "commentary" became consumed as "fact."
Beyond education, I don't see what can realistically be done about that. But Galston's point about minimizing the effect of dragging out an angry base is interesting--with everyone (or most) voting, the main tool of the ideologue is dulled.
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ORIGINAL: Arpig
I think its a good idea.
Me too--at least one that deserves serious national discussion.
< Message edited by Musicmystery -- 6/2/2010 6:52:09 AM >
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Case for Compulsory Voting - 
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