I’ll play Devil’s Advocate here and present, with tongue only lightly brushing against cheek, some arguments for raising the voting age and further restricting the vote.
First, observe that in the early years of this country’s history, very few people were allowed to vote. Each state set its own conditions for voting, but the general rule was that only white male property owners could vote. Here’s a lovely graph from Wikipedia:
As you can see, the notion of universal suffrage wasn’t too popular until after World War II. Consider the quality of our Presidents before the huge expansion of the vote in 1828: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Adams. Immediately after 1828, we got Jackson, a dictatorial monster. And consider some of the turkeys that the stupid American public has elected since then: Trump, Bush II, Buchanan, Johnson, Pierce, and Harding. These Presidents alone comprise the most powerful condemnation of the American political system.
Let’s be honest: damn few people know enough about the world to vote rationally. Here’s a survey taken by the Annenberg Public Policy Center demonstrating that roughly half of Americans don’t know squat about the Constitution. And we let these ignorami vote!?!?!
If I were king (well, President as per Mr. Trump’s desires), I would issue an executive order restricting the vote to those who can pass a basic civics, history, and current events test. This wouldn’t be any namby-pamby test with easy answers like “Who is buried in Lincoln’s Tomb?” Here are the kind of questions I’d put on the test:
1. If the Constitution doesn’t explicitly allocate a power to the Federal government, who gets that power?
2. Does a foreign terrorist captured in the United States have the same trial rights as a citizen arrested for drunk driving?
3. Which branch of government has primary responsibility for determining the budget?
4. Where in the Constitution does it say that the Supreme Court can nullify a law by declaring it unconstitutional?
5. Whose election triggered the Civil War?
6. Name the best book to read if you want to understand the Constitution.
7. How many justices sit on the Supreme Court?
8. Name one important Supreme Court decision issued before the year 2000.
9. Name the current leaders of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, and Russia.
10. Name countries bordering on Germany.
11. How many countries belong to the United Nations?
I would award the franchise only to those people who correctly answer at least 8 of these questions. Moreover, I’d require people to re-take the test every ten years. I think you’ll agree that very few Americans would pass this test.
Consider the benefits of such a system. The election of Mr. Trump would have been utterly impossible. Electoral campaigns would not include yard signs, bumper stickers, buttons, television ads, or any of the other moronic paraphernalia dominating our current elections. Corporate money wouldn’t play anywhere near as large a role in elections as it now does. People could spread all the lies they want on Facebook, but actual voters wouldn’t pay any attention to them. Elections would be about actual political issues — what a concept! We wouldn’t waste time talking about the size of a candidate’s penis, or whether he had an affair, or whether she is a harridan, or any of the other idiocies attending our elections nowadays. Being a television or movie star, or being handsome or pretty, would be of no benefit to a candidate.
I maintain that such a system would be superior to the current system. Thus, instead of expanding the franchise, we should narrow it.
Whaddya think of them apples?