http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4012510Oh my.
mtnsnake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Sep-16-08 12:25 PM
Original message
If people have to take tests for driver's permits then why not issue a quiz before someone can vote?
People have the right to vote, regardless of whether they know anything or not, so even if they fail the quiz they could still vote, of course, but at least it would be an eye opener for them.
IMO, if everyone had to take a very basic political quiz before they walked into the voting booth...and find out what the correct answers were...then Democrats probably wouldn't lose another election for decades. Most ignorant people who walk into a voting booth and pull the level for "R" don't even know who or what they're voting for or what those people stand for. They vote "R" because their parents brought them up that way. They don't know the first thing about the issues or the candidates, NOTHING.
My point is that we keep complaining how America elects idiots for Presidents because people in this country are so stupid. I don't think it's so much that people are stupid, but they're just ignorant, at least most of the ones who vote Republican are.
For example, my first 4 questions on the voter's quiz would be:
1) Barack Obama used to be a Muslim. True or False
2) Under Obama's economic plan, he is not going to raise taxes on the middle class. True or False
3) John McCain was a POW in WWII. True or False
4) John McCain and Sarah Palin both agree we should drill in Alaska for oil. True or False
If all voters had to take a basic quiz about current political affairs, then the USA would be soooo much better off for it. At the very least, millions of previously ignorant might learn a few important facts before they could walk into a voting booth again.
*** Just in case....for any lurking freepers, the correct answers are 1)F, 2)T, 3)F, 4)F ***
Oh my.
Jamastiene (1000+ posts) Tue Sep-16-08 12:31 PM
Response to Reply #1
11. That's the first thought I had.
Some areas of this country cannot be trusted to issue a quiz to everyone. Some places would try to abuse it and only give the test to some people.
I still remember hearing about some places trying to make black people tell them how many bubbles a bar of soap produces before they'd let them vote. Bullshit like that is what some places would try to pull.
JackRiddler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Sep-16-08 12:35 PM
Response to Original message
18. They used to have tests...
And these were used to keep blacks from voting.
Let's have Ken Blackwell and Katharine Harris oversee a bureaucracy that administers voting tests, that should really get better results!
This is about power, pure and simple. Suffrage is universal, or it is guaranteed to be partisan.
You know, this reminds me of a true story I read somewhere.
Back during the 1950s, the
Democrats in the southern states imposed literacy tests on voters.
This was because the
Democrats didn't want blacks to vote.
In one of the southern states, there appeared a black gentleman at the polling place, wishing to vote.
The guy was a
bona fide resident of the area, but had a Ph.D. in one of the hard sciences.
The
Democrats gave him the standard literacy test, which he passed with flying colors.
Nervous that they might have to let him vote, the
Democrats pulled out another, harder, test.
He passed that one, too, to the consternation of the
Democrats.
The
Democrats then pulled out an even more difficult test--questions such as "what's the 643rd word in the Constitution?" or "who was Franklin Pierce's secretary of state?" or "what's the meaning of the word 'boryborygmous'?" and somesuch--and the guy passed again.
The
Democrats got really nervous; they were sweating.
Finally, one of the
Democrats gave the black gentleman a copy of the Declaration of Independence, written in upside-down Japanese.
"Do you know what this says?" the
Democrat asked the black gentleman.
The prospective voter said yes, he knew what it said.
"Well, what does it say?" the
Democrat asked, incredulous.
The black gentleman responded, "It says, 'Here's one n----r who's not going to get to vote.'"
Anyway.
TomInTib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Sep-16-08 12:36 PM
Response to Original message
21. If it was as easy as the CA tests, my dog could vote.
Hell, the State of California gave me a Drivers License without requiring me to take a driving test.
And I had not had a license for the past ten years.
The loutish Brit primitive's at the bonfire too, but his comments are irrelevant, because the loutish Brit primitive doesn't vote in the United States.
