How to Fix Democracy

The franchise is too broad.

Someone once said that democracy works only so long as people don’t realize they can just vote themselves money.

And that, sadly, seems to be where we are headed.

There is a simple solution, and it is what our ancestors did: nobody paid by government gets to vote. This would include people on welfare, pensioners, the disabled, students on government scholarships. It seems a small sacrifice in exchange for a living, and would prevent this conflict of interest. 

And it would include civil servants, public school teachers, the police, the military. Employees should not vote on their own employment terms or rate of pay—otherwise, we have a ruling class.

In the same vein, corporations or individuals receiving government subsidies or government contracts should be prohibited from making any political donations for a set term—say ten years.

If this rule were imposed, it would probably cause the Liberal and New Democratic parties to collapse; the Democrats to collapse in the US. 

Which seems to me to show they are corrupt.

Interest Groups

 

I keep hearing left-wing commentators lamenting that women, or blacks, or the working class, are foolish to vote for Trump, because they are “voting against their interests.” Anna Kasparian, recently gone independent, laments during an interview that “neither party any longer represents my interests.”

This is not how a good person talks.

A good person, and a responsible citizen, does not vote for their self-interest. They vote for what they believe is best for the country as a whole. They vote for the policies that they believe are just.

It is a striking testament to our depravity that this keeps passing without comment.

A Disturbing Piece on Election Fraud

 

If we cannot trust elections, everything is out the window.

I used to think Canadian elections, at least, were secure. But then Canada started moving from paper ballots to voting machines--the very thing that began to call US elections into question.

Voting machines should be banned. And, obviously, voting must be in person with ID.