CRACKPOTS VOTING FOR JACKPOTS
27 Jul 2006
Some folks are taking strong exception to my recent blogs, America’s Destroyed Foundations. This, despite the following facts: (1) Our government is in the control of self-serving politicians, far more concerned with their selfish ambitions and political aspirations than our nation’s future. (2) Our courts are packed with judicial despots, who are on a crusade to profane our culture by removing from it every semblance of our Christian heritage. (3) Our schools are filled with professors determined to teach our children to disdain America and embrace globalism, multiculturalism, and relativism. (4) Our media appears hell-bent on spreading anti-Americanism all over the world and giving our terrorist enemies a heads-up by exposing every secret government program being used to fight our nation’s war on terror. (5) And more Americans voted for the winner of American Idol than for the President of the United States of America.
To strengthen my case against any bright prospects for our God-forsaking nation’s future, permit me to submit some additional evidence; namely, the Arizona Voter Reward Act. Arizona’s Mark Osterloh, a former gubernatorial candidate, has collected 185,902 signatures of registered voters in order to get his “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Vote!” ballot initiative on this fall’s ballot. The proposal promises to award $1 million in every general election to a lucky voter chosen by lottery. Since the odds of winning Osterloh’s election lottery (1-in-2-million) are much better than winning the popular Powerball jackpot (1-in-146 million), Osterloh believes many nonvoting, lottery-playing Arizonians will be motivated to show up at the polls in hopes of winning a million bucks.
Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t believe that greater voter turnout is good for America. As far as I’m concerned, there are already too many stupid people voting. I agree with Winston Churchill, who once said, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” The last thing this country needs is more uninformed and uninterested voters determining its future by carelessly casting their ballots in hopes of winning an election lottery jackpot.
Did you know that to vote in colonial America one had to pass a poll test and have a “stake in society”; that is, own property or pay taxes? Voting was considered so important that only the informed and invested were considered qualified to cast ballots. Today, however, just about anybody can vote, irregardless of whether or not they own property, pay taxes, or know anything about the issues. Thus, higher voter turnout in today’s America certainly doesn’t assure a better outcome; in fact, it may guarantee the opposite.
According to Mr. Osterlah, if his idea passes in Arizona it will spread to other states that allow citizen ballot initiatives. Just think, before long Americans could be casting their ballots in hopes of cashing in on election lottery jackpots, not in hopes of bettering our country or its prospects for the future. I don’t know about you, but I believe reducing our democracy to a scratch-and-win game is just one more nail in our country’s coffin.
Don Walton
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