2013
The left is yelling about steps backward in civil rights because the Supreme Court said the experience of forty years ago is no longer a valid reason for federal pre-implementation oversight of changes in state voting rules. Notwithstanding the reality that new data substantiating ongoing abuse in certain areas could cause Congress to pass a new law again targeting abusers, and the fact this is more about who votes for whom and political power than the rights of anyone, we are missing the real problem with voting. [For an interesting commentary on the Court ruling see this article in National Review]
That problem is indifference and ignorance. We could have every eligible American in the Country voting in every election and be no better off. I read recently that more Americans can name the three stooges than can name the three branches of government. Many will argue that universal suffrage is the cornerstone of our republic and that’s true, but with it comes responsibility. Voters have an obligation to be educated and informed about their country and their government and the issues upon which they vote. Literacy is not even a requirement to vote under our Constitution and no doubt back in the 18th century that was important, but in today’s complex world would such a requirement be so bad? Some would say the right to vote is a privilege, I side with those who say it is an obligation and with an obligation comes responsibility.
The majority of Americans are uninformed and misinformed about their Country’s history and how their government works. Many Americans cannot pass the test used for US citizenship.
WASHINGTON – Immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship have to pass a 10-question civics test asking basic questions about American history and government, and about 93% succeed.
But only 65% of native-born Americans could get the required six out of 10 right answers when asked the same questions in a telephone poll.
That’s the finding from the Center for the Study of the American Dream at Xavier University in Cincinnati, which commissioned the telephone survey of 1,023 native-born Americans last month. Michael Ford, the director of the center, said the results are particularly troubling in an election year featuring competing visions of a Constitution that many citizens may not understand.
“If we are civic illiterates, the chances of losing our freedom is greater than being invaded by aliens or a foreign country,” he said.
We have a voting problem in this Country alright, but it has nothing to do with rules for voting in Alabama or Arizona.
“Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every elector is a trustee as well for others as himself and that every measure he supports has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own. ”
Daniel Webster, The Works of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1853), Vol. II, p. 108.
“When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country. ”
Noah Webster, Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education to which is subjoined a Brief History of the United States (New Haven: S. Converse, 1823), p. 19.
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