Obama: Mandatory voting to counteract BIG money

[dank69]

I thought a lack of a vote indicates voter apathy towards the respective candidates.

In other words, you all suck, so nobody gets my vote.

This is what I'm thinking:

Mandatory voting is just another way to get the lazy into the poll booths. Lazy usually vote for a certain party. We know which party that is. I'm guessing all the people who support this are from that party because they know exactly what's going on here.

Prizes or penalties for voting is the most crazy idea I've heard in a long time.

There would have to be an option for "none of the above." Then we would see how many don't like any of the candidates and how many are just lazy.

 

[soundforbjt]

Nope, republicans would not like this one bit. I saw a poll recently that asked people who didn't vote how they would vote if voting were mandatory, democrats won that poll by 35%.

 

[SMOGZINN]

A better solution would be to remove private money from campaigns. Government funded campaigns in which the top 4 parties from the last election gets equal money to spend on campaigning. Remove any tax advantages to political advertisement, that means removing non-profit status from political organizations. It seems pretty naive to think any of them are really non-profit anyway.

 

[Sonikku]

I had an idea.


How about we counter big money in politics by


getting rid of big money in politics.

 

[soundforbjt]

It'd never pass a republican held congress.

 

[boomerang]

A better solution would be to remove private money from campaigns. Government funded campaigns in which the top 4 parties from the last election gets equal money to spend on campaigning. Remove any tax advantages to political advertisement, that means removing non-profit status from political organizations. It seems pretty naive to think any of them are really non-profit anyway.

I think it's important for people to remember who makes the rules. The only people that can change the system are the same people that benefit from the system. In other words, it ain't gonna happen. There won't be reform and there won't be mandatory voting. There is too much invested in the status quo to change it.

 

[trenchfoot]

I had an idea.


How about we counter big money in politics by


getting rid of big money in politics.

Then no one would want to get into politics except unemployed masochists.

 

[highland145]

Then no one would want to get into politics except unemployed masochists.

$175K/yr says otherwise. I know that's a pay cut around here but it's good $$ for most other people.

 

[MiniDoom]

It'd never pass a republican held congress.

this is a horrible idea and that might be one of the few things the republican congress did right...

 

[Paul98]

I have always thought we needed a way to get far more people to vote. So I like the idea

 

[Fanatical Meat]

It would never work here. The courts aren't ready to handle it. However I'm all for making it easier to vote like how about voting on Sunday & Monday and Monday is a holiday and automatic voter registration you'd need to opt out of voter registration

 

[soundforbjt]

this is a horrible idea and that might be one of the few things the republican congress did right...

You really think allowing big money in politics is a good idea?

 

[kage69]

Yeah the GOP is probably having an aneurism over the notion of more people voting, nice one Obama.

They've spent a lot of time and money trying to shore up corporate political power while undermining voting rights, and now Obama wants to ruin it all with more people voting!

Remember ladies, these are the people who think you should just stay home and mind your laundry and reality TV, just leave all this hard to understand democracy stuff to real Americans who love America almost as much as their vested financial interests and often debunked religious/political dogma.

Reactions to this compared to the reactions of Citizens United says a hell of a lot about pubs, not much of it good either. They want democracy to be seeded all over the world, but back home this democracy stuff is becoming...problematic. Alarm bells should be ringing people.

lol, republicans.

Who needs foreign adversaries when you have these mutinous dumbfucks at home actively trying to make the country adopt their unwelcome bullshit? Yes, they should be scared. They've only won the popular vote once in the last 25 years, and most of them know that even a moderate surge in voting numbers means no amount of gerrymandering, election rigging or "updating" the Electoral College system will take the place of actually have good ideas and giving a shit about your countrymen.


'Mandatory' voting is a good idea, but I think instead of making it illegal to not comply with an incentive would work better (I like the tax credit idea)

 

[MiniDoom]

You really think allowing big money in politics is a good idea?

Nope, but i don't think solves the issue either. We have enough laws. what are you going to someone if they don't vote? fines, tax credits? what if they don't pay income tax? are stuck in a hospital or unable to vote for some reason? This is like saying if we make drugs illegal, then people will stop doing them. this will only put a larger burden on the irs or whoever was to enforce this.

 

[soundforbjt]

Nope, but i don't think solves the issue either. We have enough laws. what are you going to someone if they don't vote? fines, tax credits? what if they don't pay income tax? are stuck in a hospital or unable to vote for some reason? This is like saying if we make drugs illegal, then people will stop doing them. this will only put a larger burden on the irs or whoever was to enforce this.

There's already a plan for that in the countries who have it.

 

[MiniDoom]

There's already a plan for that in the countries who have it.

ok, how should it be enforced and by whom?

 

[trenchfoot]

$175K/yr says otherwise. I know that's a pay cut around here but it's good $$ for most other people.

Agreed, but I was weakly inferring more to the very profitable "fringe benefits" that get handed out to our politicians from big businesses.

 

[1prophet]

Requiring voter ID is too onerous and is just Republicans trying to disenfranchise minorities, but Obama brings up andatory voting and Democrats collectively jizz themselves as they picture the landslide wins they imagine they'll get.

LOL, Democrats.

Woah there! Nobody said anything about ID's.

You will create an ID system defacto, since you need to identify those that voted and those that did not with associated penalties if they were eligible and able to vote but didn't.

 

[highland145]

Agreed, but I was weakly inferring more to the very profitable "fringe benefits" that get handed out to our politicians from big businesses.

I know and those are what should go. Unless I get elected to congress.

 

[BoberFett]

Woah there! Nobody said anything about ID's.

How does one propose to mandate voting without IDs, and linking a ballot to an individual?

This has massive privacy and disenfranchisement written all over it, but Democrats will fall down and worship anything uttered by The Obama.

 

[soundforbjt]

ok, how should it be enforced and by whom?

Here's how one country does it:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37264214&postcount=7

 

[Jhhnn]

Obama is right about one thing- extremely high participation would be transformative, one way or the other. I think the remark is deliberately provocative in a good way, lets us see that winning a majority in a low participation election doesn't necessarily mean what the winner would like to think that it means. It's not really license for radical policy at all. It also touches on other aspects of government, like gerrymandering & States' Rights.

In talking to people, it's quite remarkable how poorly the non-voting population understands the process, how little information is actually provided by our education system. People seem to think they need to understand all the issues in order to vote at all. When I say that it's OK to leave something blank, they either don't get it or see it as an epiphany.

I also think that voter registration should be automatic w/ an opt out when renewing state ID & that it should be decoupled from things like Jury Duty. Here in CO, jury pools are drawn from state ID, not from voter registration. I think that should be universal.

I also think that modern computer systems can easily be used to give voters a small state tax credit rather than having any negative consequences to not voting.

 

[BoberFett]

You really had to tie yourself up in knots to find some equivalency between opposing irrational restrictions based on solving problems that don't exist and promoting greater electoral participation.

I think Democrats would make you less angry if you stopped and thought about what their real positions were for a minute.

And maybe if you would stop and think for a moment, you'd realize that Democrats are no more your friend than Republicans are.

 

[Moonbeam]

Americans are psychologically deeply sick. We have created a culture that makes us that way. Politics is a war between those who are the most sick and want to make us sicker and those who are the least sick and want to fix things. The former think they are the latter ands will insure that nothing ever allows us to get well. In order to change, a person first has to know they are in need of it. The change that Americans need isn't political, it's psychological, a subject our culture has made sure we know nothing about. Television and the media will insure we stay asleep. Your purpose on earth is to work for others and buy things. Voting will be done for you by the most insane. You are a bettery and you sleep inside a giant machine.

 

[Jhhnn]

Why not just enact some campaign finance reform?

Why not just give everybody a pony?

Hell, Repubs are opposed to accountability for political spending, let alone having any limitations on it at all. They created an elaborate system where money might just as well fall from the sky into the hands of various non-profits.