The Constitution and Amendments give the basic outline of whom should be allowed to vote. Citizenship is required and you need to be at least 18 years of age. It used to be necessary to be registered and a resident where you voted. The Democrats are moving to do away with all of these remaining restrictions.
One of the lies perpetuated by the America hating left is that the Founders wrote the constitution to serve only the rich and property owners. While owning property was considered during the debates it was rejected. Property ownership or minimum worth were requirements in England but the new American experiment did away with them. There is nothing in the Constitution about owning property to be a voter. Period. It is not there.
Some states did have property or income requirements but they were greatly reduced as the thinking of the Revolution made its way into society at large. I find myself in sympathy toward limiting the right to vote. I find that most people have no idea what they are voting on or how their elected officials vote. I don’t know how many conversations I have had with black Americans on the different issues in campaigns. Usually they would agree with Ronald Reagan on individual issues but still vote a straight Democrat ticket. Would I limit the right to vote based on race? No, but if it were possible to weed out those who are not paying attention without abusing the process, I would go for it.
Why? The Founding Fathers knew the dangers of having a limited buy-in to society. This is a quote from John Adams from Vindicating the Founders,
“Such is the frailty of the human heart, that very few men who have no property, have any judgment of their own. They talk and vote as they are directed by some man of property, who has attached their minds to his interest....[M]en who are wholly destitute of property... [are] to all intents and purposed as much dependent upon others, who will please to feed, clothe, and employ them, as women are upon their husbands, or children upon their parents.”This explains why all major cities are Democrat strongholds. The majority of people in them are living off of government handouts or work for the government. They know which side their butter is on and who gets milked to supply it.
And again, we make the mistake of using “democracy” instead of “republic”. We are not, nor have we ever been a democracy. The Founders did not trust the masses enough to have a democracy. We have a constitution that protects the minority groups instead of allowing the mindless to be manipulated. Enjoy what is left of your liberty while you still can.
West, Thomas G. Vindicating the Founders. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997, page 122.
homo unius libri
We lost the game when the states did away with the property rule. Too many people vote who have no skin in the game.
ReplyDeleteIn principle I agree with you. In practice we need to keep in mind that once we start allowing limitations we are one election away from the Progressives saying that people who attend church are not mentally stable enough to vote. As good as that would be in forcing the church to wake up it would just be the first shot they took.
DeleteGrace and peace