As you may be aware, President Obama has now floated the idea of “mandatory voting” – i.e. all citizens must vote regardless of whether they want to and regardless of what they do or do not know about what they\’re voting for.
Let me explain how this will work:
Political operative: “Are you voting today”
Non-voter: “Uh, no:”
Political Operative: “Do you know who the candidates are?
Non-voter: “Uh, no”
Political Operative: “Do you know what referendum is being voted on?”
Non-voter: “Uh, no. What\’s a referendum?”
Political Operative: No problem. Here, I\’ll show you who is voting and what the referendum is. Let\’s start with the candidates. I know you don\’t know them, but do you want to vote for this one (said with a smile) or that one who is against a lot of the things you are in favor of (said with a withering tone and a sneer)”?
Non-voter: “Uh, this one”.
Political Operative: Do you want to vote yes on this referendum (said with a smile) or no on this referendum, which is really going to hurt us?”
Non-voter: “Uh, yes”.
Political Operative. Great! Now let\’s vote.
If you think this is what Barack Obama envisions, congratulations on having at least an average 5 year old\’s common sense.
If you do not think this is what Barack Obama envisions, my condolences on having less common sense than an average 5 year old.
Incidentally, the way Mr. Obama said this – with a reliance on first person descriptions which suggests he is talking about his own privately held business instead of a country with co-equal branches of government, is worthy of a separate blog. I\’ll be putting it up shortly.
