TOTAL LICENSING
to allow states to require voter identification • To have an opportunity to run for office time and walk past
(ID cards). This may affect voters in states that even if their financial circumstances are not them. The
might refuse ID cards to people with insufficient so fortunate as to allow them a major interested parties,
proficiency in English. starting capital to invest into their efforts. however, will stop
• Should the system, as such, force every and sign.
The comfort of tradition and the present candidate into a “one fits all” formula, • Does an initiative
system of primaries for the USA vs. pro- assigning a fixed amount that they may therefore appeal
portional representation – democracy as spend or that the government would only to a certain
practiced in many other countries. provide to them? politically alert
• Does that not restrict their personal class who are
By the reckoning of the thinkers in the young freedom to spend their money for goals those who go to demonstrations or join
new Federation of the 13 Founding Colonies they hold dear, or opportunities they wish protest marches?
– what was needed to meld them together in a to develop? • Is this the average citizen? Does it really
unit was stability and compromise between such • When we allow great fortune to enter the represent the will of the people?
diverse regions. In the ensuing 200 years, while scene, we again restrict the freedom of the • Does all this sponsor governance by the
the United States grew into its present shape, poor man to seek office. educated who have the time and leisure
the consciousness of sovereignty of so many di- • Rich or poor to continue a wide open to devote themselves to such somewhat
verse states remained in - as much as possible campaign are, as is often observed, forced to ethereal questions.
- allowing local control, with the Federal gov- spend more time in running their financing,
ernment only providing the cement of common and supervising their financing operations,
purpose in foreign policy and issues affecting the than they sometimes can devote to fleshing 8. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
whole body of the USA. Even the cataclysm of out issues. Thomas Jefferson urged “that we consider each gen-
the Civil War finally decided by Northern vic- eration as a distinct nation with a right by the will of
tory on the field of arms, never really removed 6. EDUCATION OF THE VOTER its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the
the inherent theories of States Rights. Of course it is desirable for the voter to be fully succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of
To the American psyche the picture of parlia- informed and thereby make wise choices. another country. He suggested that a solemn op-
ments with ever-shifting alliances of many dif- • What is full information, however – and portunity of revising the Constitution every nineteen
ferent voter and issue-driven parties, seemed to what is too much information? How much or twenty years should be provided…so that it may
either lead to laborious inaction and instability, information can a voter reasonably acquire be handed on with periodical repairs from genera-
or lead in bad times’ worst case scenario, to dic- on specialized issues or complicated tion to generation”.
tatorships as a road to unification. questions that require protracted study. This may have seemed possible with small popu-
Much better, so deep-seated belief went, to • To facilitate this job for the voter, there are lations and legislatures in earlier days but has
resolve differences within the basic two-party of course media sound bites, debates, proved well nigh impossible in present day con-
system that had originated in simpler times, and commentary over the air waves, blogs and sidering what it takes to pass a Constitutional
struggle for slow, but safe, and peaceful policy advertising. amendment and I doubt that we would all like to
changes between two reasonable opinions that • Again, the connection between money amend our Constitution every few years in line
could be resolved within the party, or between and the affordability of such efforts, is clearly with the fashion of the day.
the parties at the primary or the ballot box. visible.
All deviationist Third Parties (often single issue), 9. VOTING MACHINES AND
throughout time never were able to attract crit- 7. WHAT IS A LOCAL INITIATIVE COUNTING VOTES
ical mass: Single taxpayers, Populists, Farmer-La- • This is an issue that a pressure group, or • The mere enormity of the task has made it
bor, Free thinkers, Progressives, Socialists, Liber- an organized party may wish to convince desirable for states to be in charge
als, Libertarian party, Bull- Moose, America First, the Electorate to put on the ballot so that following, of course, appropriate Federal
Ross Perot Independents, Ralph Nader, often it can be voted on. Of course this is not guidelines.
propelled by one prominent spokesman, would possible unless a fairly large quantity of • It is an accepted theory that an election
have some of their ideas absorbed into one of people would agree that they wish to must be simultaneous. In every state the
the major parties - and cease to function having express their opinion on such issue. Even voter should not be influenced by
in this fashion lost their validity. local initiatives are costly and difficult to what other voters think and so there might
The comfort of the known and trusted is not in put on the ballot. National initiatives are be the very serious question of how much
itself undemocratic when clearly favored by the practically impossible because it is information the voter should have in the last
majority. However, there would be a few more technically not possible to have so many hours or days before deciding on his vote.
issues that crop up and bring their own ques- elections one of which would only deal with In some European countries there are two
tions and concerns. whether to ask a question in the next or three day blackouts of news or sound
election. bites before Election Day.
5. CAMPAIGN FINANCE • To gain adherence to an initiative, the
We cannot eliminate the influence of money sponsors thereof generally will use paid or 10. COMPLAINTS
in campaigns. Many efforts have been made to volunteer petition circulators who are those • If voting machines are not the same in
find a fair and just system that will permit can- people you see on the street with their different states or counties, their more or
didates: questionnaire pads. Most citizens have no less complicated use, again, will militate for or
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