President Obama is contemplating continuing his administration’s “mandatory” theme—going from mandatory health insurance to mandatory voting. CNN,
Asked how to offset the influence of big money in politics, President Barack Obama suggested it’s time to make voting a requirement…
“It would be transformative if everybody voted — that would counteract money more than anything,” he said, adding it was the first time he had shared the idea publicly…
But mandatory voting could bring its own set of problems. Haydon Manning, associate professor at Flinders University in Australia, said that country’s rules can backfire.
“Turning the vote out might not be a problem, but wooing disengaged citizens now requires banal sloganeering and crass misleading negative advertising,” Manning wrote. “To me, this can diminish the democratic experience for those who take the time to think through the issues.”
This is a great idea. Nothing like turning the ballot against the conscience. So as if gerrymandering added too little insult to our electoral charade, consider the larger issue that both parties are equally beholden to the ownership/investment/banking class. Moreover, neither party proffers policies addressing the social crises that increasingly define our existence in an emerging, fascistic, national security state. Our elections are a lie. Mandatory or not, I won’t be participating in the lie.
“Good day, Comrade. Let me see your papers. Ah, it appears you did not vote for der fuhrer in the last election. You are under arrest for violation of the Democrat Voter Turnout Assurance Act of 2015. Hands behind your back.”