Anarcho-Lobbyist: You Have No Right To Vote

Posted by Zenphamy 10 years, 2 months ago to Government
35 comments | Share | Flag

So is voting a Right that every citizen should have. This comment has an interesting look at the question and offers some good reasons.
From the article:

"Voting is not a right. I understand the desire, and even the perceived necessity to treat it that way, since all of us are affected by government, but it’s still a not a “right”. I don’t much like the concept of rights to begin with, but that’s a story for another post. Whether or not rights exist, the idea that anyone is morally or even pragmatically correct in choosing those who will violently rule over others is insane. If you have no proper authority to violently rule over others, it is impossible for you to delegate that authority to someone else.

Government is an unjust imposition on all of our lives, and voting is a privilege granted by that institution. This is self evident, in that it requires registration to be invoked, and that it can be revoked at any time. Not only that, but it is perhaps the most abused privilege since taxation, and I don’t personally feel like making it more readily available to people is going to help improve the world any. There’s a reason liberals always accuse conservatives of voter suppression, and that’s because fewer voters is generally a good thing for keeping government small.

Most people are not exceedingly intelligent or well educated, particularly when it comes to history and economics. Thus, when politicians tell them to choose between a candidate who says “We’ll keep you safe and healthy and give you free stuff” vs. a candidate who says “You are responsible for your own life” most of them will unfortunately support the former. Free stuff and safety are universally appealing options, and so anyone who makes those promises, however false they may be, will be favored over someone who gives the hard truth of “life sucks, get a fuckin helmet”."

and

"It is exceedingly rare that I stand for the State to be more restrictive on anything, but voting and getting free stuff is where I draw the line. I support drug testing for welfare recipients, and I support restrictions on voting for the same reason.

Making voting more widely available is the same thing as making welfare more widely available. You give people better access to the machinery of the State, and we should not act surprised when it gets used more frequently. Voting is serious business, a person who deems themselves fit to choose who will violently rule over a society had better have some skin in the game, and know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, the people pushing hardest for freer elections are often those who have the least education, intelligence, and skin in the game."

Do any Gulchers think there's a chance in Hell that we can aver get back to a Republic after being democratized?


All Comments


Previous comments...   You are currently on page 2.
  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Is anyone up for helping build Atlantis? "
    I'm thinking of the book "Tribes: We Need [jbrenner] to Lead Us"
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I agree with what you're saying completely but I'm not sure I'd use the word savior. I think she thought she could just ignore the looters or work around them and be left free to do what she loved, i.e. running/building a railroad business. In the book the looters get so out of hand that it becomes impossible. She goes to a cabin up north to relax, but she starts thinking how she could build a business in the little town where the cabin is. "Just stop!" she tells herself. It's like she's addicted to creating value, and the looters are addicted to taking it.

    I love that story, but I think we are no where near that point now, and I don't think President Obama is the problem.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by frodo_b 10 years, 2 months ago
    Nope. The US won't become a republic again. The pandora's box of democracy and universal sufferage has been opened. Who's going to volunteer to give up their privilege of voting and lose their place at the public trough?

    There is one chance to return to a republic and that is to return law to it's natural and only purpose -- to protect the property of individuals. As long as law is used to plunder from some to give to others then people will clamor for their "right" to vote so they can participate in the game.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 2 months ago
    I agree with all of this. When I've said this in the past, people rightly point out that a test or other barrier that makes it harder to vote could be abused. I agree. I think we should be willing to admit, though, that it's not a good thing with no knowledge to vote.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    At this point, getting out of the way is likely the only practical answer. Prior to the election of Obama, I think that the country could have been saved. I have a lot of the "Dagny savior complex" in me, and even I don't think it salvageable now.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
    The author of this article nails it. There is no chance that the US will ever get back to the republic it was founded as. Is anyone up for helping build Atlantis? As for the "chance in Hell" aspect of the question, Hell is where you are when you live in a communist country, which is the US is quickly moving toward.
    Reply | Permalink  

  • Comment hidden. Undo