Winter Patriot Community Blog

Yes, it frightens me when I hear a bunch of coconuts talking and I think, "These people vote"!
Given that this is hypothetical, who would set the questions and answers? In the case it could be done, I think both parties would provide "cheat sheets" with the answers. The fact that the answers contradicted the propoganda would not register with the average voter, anyway, and the parties would know that.
The need is clear, though; to get the scales to fall from peoples' eyes. For them to see clearly that it is not Grandma with the big ears and the big teeth looking at them from under Grandma's bonnet. But how to do it?

Depending on who you read, there are between 1/4 and 1/3 of the population who are psychopaths/sociopaths and their followers who will do their bidding. That leaves a very clear majority of people who will respond to co-operative efforts to increase the well being of everyone. But how to reach them?

Frankly, I think the answer lies outside the electoral system. Why play a rigged game? There must be another way. The electoral system is the effect of causes outside it. Identify, study then undermine, nullify or replace those causes.

From Chris Hedges (link via A Tiny Revolution)-
"Our oligarchic class is incompetent at governing, managing the economy, coping with natural disasters, educating our young, handling foreign affairs, providing basic services like health care and safeguarding individual rights. That it is still in power, and will remain in power after this election, is a testament to our inability to separate illusion from reality. We still believe in “the experts.” They still believe in themselves. They are clustered like flies swarming around John McCain and Barack Obama. It is only when these elites are exposed as incompetent parasites and dethroned that we will have any hope of restoring social, economic and political order. "

More here-
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081020_the_idiots_who_rule_america/

Of course, this same "oligarchic class" is behind (and always has been) the ubiquitous two-party variation of democracy through which it rules.

Lenin tried to kill them all. Stalin tried harder. Neither man seems to have considered the fact that if he really wanted to kill them all, he'd have to kill himself as well.

More and more I think it's human nature, and for that reason we will never escape it. I think the great question of the present age can be stated this way: Science could save us from ourselves by enabling us to move off-planet. But can science enable us to move off-planet before we manage to kill ourselves?

I'd like to hang around and watch the drama play itself out, but it may be that we're lucky if we die before the shakedown. It's shapin' up to be a mighty rough ride.

You're right about the civics tests, WP. I'm convinced that universal suffrage is just a really mean joke played upon Andrew Jackson by those whom he detested.

Jimmy

"It may be thought that I am prejudiced. Perhaps I am. I would be ashamed of myself if I were not." Mark Twain

WP, that's an admirable proposal, and it both draws me in, and makes me pause. It relies upon the meritocratic impulse that our public schooling tells us is the essence of America -- work hard and you get ahead. Learn government, and you get to vote.

So who will get to write the pre-vote quiz?

("Our oligarchic class is incompetent at governing, managing the economy, coping with natural disasters, educating our young, handling foreign affairs, providing basic services like health care and safeguarding individual rights."

It's not that they are incompetent at doing these things. It's that all these things are inimical to their interests, and they understand this very well. So they don't do them; they only pretend to do them; in reality they do the opposite. )

Yes, they do do the opposite - by appointing the corrupt and the incompetent. Whether Hedges is alive to this, I don't know. It was actually Jonathan Schwarz's comment on Hedge (which I forgot to include) that caught my eye.

Nope. I was gunna quote it here but thought there are too many points to quibble about. I think the fundamental point is that we have been scammed. The whole structure (hierarchies) and ethos (individuality and competition) of our society is a scam and we are victims of it. We've been trained into victimhood since birth and few realise it. The most we ever do about it is whinge and bitch about it.

Exercise for the day - pay attention to how much victimisation every body you see today accepts. The electoral system with its abuses is an effect of this mindset.

there are all sorts of non-partisan questions that could be asked:

Who is your member of congress?
How long is his/her term in office?
How many members of congress does your state have?
Who are your senators?
How long do their terms last?
How many senators are there in the entire senate?
How many members of congress are there?
Which house of congress can appropriate funds?
Which house of congress can initiate impeachment proceedings?
Who can appoint judges to the supreme court?
How long do these judges serve?
...
and on and on and on ... straight civics.

There's nothing particularly partisan about any of it -- unless one party or the other has been lying about things like this ...

It wouldn't take much effort to formulate hundreds of questions involving agreed-upon facts from world history and geography, most of which I daresay would stump most of "my fellow Americans", such as

Djibouti is part of what continent?
Do Serbia and Nicaragua share a common border?
What is the name of the region in dispute between Pakistan and India?
In what year did the Soviet Union invade Czechoslovakia?
True or False: Zimbabwe is the capital of Rhodesia?
and so on ...

I'm not saying it would be perfect, and even if it were implemented, we may still find ourselves outvoted by vicious dolts, but at least they'd be well-informed vicious dolts.

I'm also thinking that people who run for office should be required to pass some kind of civics competency test (or perhaps course) as well.

"I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain..." -- Shakespeare, Hamlet, I, v