Liberal Genius Proposes Taking Away Senior Voting Rights
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 11:40 AM
Because we all know the those hopey-changey youth voters are soooo well informed after their years of anti-American socialist propaganda.
Boy wonder Ezra Klein proposes taking away senior voting rights.
The Washington Post reported:
Here’s your out-of-the-box policy idea for the day:
America should implement weighted voting to make voting more objective and fair, and give the young more power, because the consequences of political decisions will affect them the longest. Weighted voting would restore power to twenty and thirty year olds, where it resided before the advent of medical science. With the aid of computers, it would be easy to give everyone a Voting Score, just like we all have a credit score.
If your response to this is that it’s crazy and offensive, that all American adults are equal and so is their vote, you might want to familiarize yourself with the U.S. Senate, where a Wyoming resident’s vote is worth almost 70 times as much as a Californian’s, or the electoral college, where the presidency could be won by a candidate who loses the popular vote 4:1.
All of which is to say, we already reweight voting in this country. But we do it to give residents from small states more power. Does that really make more sense than reweighting by age, education, race, income or some other demographic characteristic?
And this comes from the supposed “smart” one of the bunch.
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Published May 23, 2012 at 4:57 am - 64 Comments
Granny commented:
HMMMMM – that doesn’t agree with the historical record at all. Historically, at the time the Constitution was written & “before the advent of modern medicine”, voting power resided only in white male property owners over the age of 21 who could read and write.
And if we disenfranchised the “elderly’ then a good chunk of our legislators would not be able to vote themselves, not to mention more than a few presidents.
Has this nincompoop never heard that wisdom comes with experience and experience is acquired by age?
If we’re going to disenfranchise anyone, lets start with disenfranchising those of any age who are not literate in the English language.
THE REGIME commented:
Maybe we should make old folks into SOYLENT GREEN. They no longer provide the country any value.
chicago commented:
how about we eliminate voting rights for those who can’t legally buy beer yet. LOL!
rbosque commented:
How about voting rights only for people who PAY TAXES? The people who don’t pay taxes keep voting for people who’ll steal from the rest of us and have no vested interested in the fiscal policies of this country. They’re the reason we’re in the red. It’ll also force those free-loaders to find work.
ice eater commented:
And we could stop people from voting if they are receving food stamps or other govt benefits or work for govt – whoa – that would end the deomocrat party – never mind
Spider commented:
rbosque, I agree.
How about a weighted vote based on the amount of taxes paid?
An IRS computer could quickly determine the weighting.
dwd commented:
This guy doesn’t understand his own government. His argument is based SOLELY on the Senate, which is designed to give each state equal say. He completely ignores and does not address the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES which is apportioned based on the populations of the individual states. If the Senate AND the House were both filled based on the populations of the states, why would we need two houses of Congress at all? The point is that there are CHECKS and BALANCES, so that a small state that is not well represented in one house has a say in the other, and a state that has too much say in one house has its influence toned down in the other. He whines about fairness–like all liberals–yet the current system is the epitome of fairness.
The route to socialist takeover is through the youth. That’s exactly what this guy wants to do, reduce the voting power of our eldest and most experienced citizens who have seen and done much more in life, and boost the voting power of the youngest, most immature, and least experienced people. Clearly the young are vulnerable to promises of rainbows and unicorns and world peace, which is why they are targeted by politicians whose goal is reorganizing and controlling every aspect of society. Promise them the moon to get political power, then use that political power to take hold of every aspect of the people’s lives.
This guy should be scorned into oblivion and never heard from again, except that half the country believes his drivel is true.
LYNNDH commented:
Anyone who writes for a living should not get to vote. (Bloggers exempted of course)
Ruebacca commented:
God save us from intellectuals.
Lets just go back to Monarchy. The Queen of England seams nice enougf.
retire05 commented:
Well, if the liberals are so worried that because each state has only two Senators, perhaps we could repeal the 17th Amendment? Nah…………..
The left is concerned that the State of Wyoming has as much representation as the State of California because Wyoming is not part of their agenda. Nevermind these idiots don’t realize that the purpose of Senators is to represent their state as a whole, not as a district, as do Congress critters.
Does someone actually pay Ezra Klein for his opinions? That would be a case of dumb paying dumber.
Mike in VA commented:
i think you genius liberal advocate is here.
http://www.groundreport.com/Politics/End-One-Man-One-Vote-Shift-to-Age-Weighted-Voting/2939003
Lemonaide commented:
Did this idiot forget about the House of Representatives? Based on his argument, the larger states are given more power there at the expense of the smaller. Duh.. the system was specifically designed that way. Maybe when he’s older and knows a few things he’ll understand and appreciate the genius of our Republic.
theBuckWheat commented:
If the lefties at the WaPo want to talk about voting rights, I am happy to. When it comes time to get knee deep in “comprehensive immigration reform”, and the left insists we must have a “path to citizenship” for Mexicans who have lived here illegally, then any proposal that we entertain must NOT give such people access to voting rights as the perpetual price they must pay for having violated our laws, and to remove as much incentive as possible for the left to view illegal immigrants as a future voting block.
Jack commented:
You should get one vote for every tax dollar paid to the federal govt.
dwd commented:
#4 May 18, 2011 at 12:11 pm
rbosque commented:
How about voting rights only for people who PAY TAXES? The people who don’t pay taxes keep voting for people who’ll steal from the rest of us and have no vested interested in the fiscal policies of this country. They’re the reason we’re in the red. It’ll also force those free-loaders to find work.
==============
This is dead on. As long as you allow people who are completely dependent on the government to vote for more government assistance, the cycle will never end… until too many people are reliant on government assistance, and the Democrats are sitting there empty handed because there aren’t enough producers left to rob in order to redistribute the wealth.
What happens then, when there’s not enough money for all those outstretched hands?
It’s roughly the same as the union / collective bargaining situation, where unions extract dues from members to elect Democrats who then take care of unions upon being elected…. except it’s a union of governmental dependents voting in Democrats who will favor them with handouts.
patman commented:
and DEATH PANELS are a republican talking point…
THE REGIME commented:
How about Jews don’t get to vote. And Blacks while we are at it.
Peggy R commented:
Who reads this “boy genius”? How did he get to this level of prominence? I guess he is not aware we are a union of states?
tommy mc donnell commented:
how about we limit voting rights for the following groups:
journolists
college administrations and faculities
union leaders
people on the dole
and of course the big one illegal aliens
but we can’t do this it would mean no liberals would get elected
THE REGIME commented:
If old timers can’t vote, maybe we can cut off Social Security and Medicare. I mean they can’t vote, so who would be harmed.
Scott commented:
Ezra Klein is effectively advocating Jim Crow-like laws against the elderly. How progressive.
THE REGIME commented:
Let old timers count for 3/5th of A VOTER. DEMOCRATS did that before.
Capn Angus commented:
Is it a violation of Godwin’s Law when the author of an article really does espouse the Nazi agenda ?
How old was Robert Byrd ? What about Pelosi, Barney Frank? Bernie Sanders? Joe Biden etc.
Tru commented:
#13 theBuckWheat
“then any proposal that we entertain must NOT give such people access to voting rights as the perpetual price they must pay for having violated our laws”
Great idea!
wanumba commented:
Hey, Mao put lab coats on teenagers and said they were “doctors” and sent the doctors to re-education camps to learn how to be peasants. Ezra Klein is exactly the personality who thinks that is the natural order of life. Strutting ego trumps work.
The great one, Mao listened to the youth and agreed that studying and exams were truly UNNECESSARY because they already knew MORE than their stupid parents.
China is ah, still paying for that destruction of their skilled generation, decades later.
The Left flatters the youth to overthrow the elders. Now on the OTHER hand the Left cynically panders to the “Elders” in places like Darfur since AFricans still value experience, so the Left can bestow honorifics on the likes of busybody Jimmah Carter and Desmond Tutu as “Elders” to give them some sort of vapid credibility as intermediaries. Carter, that typical Democrat, has bungled every encounter and the Left’s Moral Cred Icon Tutu is denounced by actual former Sudan slaves as caring more about installing socialism than actually helping Africans in dire straights.
USMC Thomas commented:
Israel’s worst enemy is this kind of American Jew.
Indigo Red commented:
I seem to remember this happening in some city elections a few years back in which minority votes were counted something like 17 to 1 against white votes cast in one city and 6 to 1 in another. The courts upheld the validity of the schemes.
whatif commented:
So let me understand this – they want to take voting power away from the honest people that worked all of their lives in productive taxpaying jobs, obeyed the laws and contributed to their communities and instead give them to poorly educated young useful idiots who have been indoctrinated by one political party? Gee what would that lead to?
Sorry don’t think so.
Here is a suggestion that would equally piss off liberals
Lets strip voting rights of those who receive entitlements and have paid nothing in taxes. The elderly who paid taxes all of their lives are exempt. Everyone else – sorry but if you want a say, start to contribute to the country instead of draining it with your existence.
TheTriGuy commented:
Boy Genius is an idiot.
chuck in st paul commented:
Yes and NO.
I believe one MAJOR way to fix some of our issues is that anyone taking government money must recuse themselves from voting in that election. It’s a conflict of interest. That would also dump 95% of the students as well. Taking government money is voluntary (we can make Medicare that way very easily with a law change).
Also, anyone taking government money is not allowed to contribute to election campaigns as that would be a conflict of interest as well – money laundering.
All that would be quite legal. The odds of that getting done rate between slim and none.
Amjean commented:
I think anyone who was an adult during the reign of Jimmy Carter should get more
votes. They are the only ones who know exactly what is gong on now with the
destruction of the United States since they lived through it before.
squeaky commented:
i wonder how many of the mentally incapacitated were rounded up by acorn [and other progressive units] for the 2008 election. unable to make unassisted choices. weren’t they trolling under bridges, etc for the unregistered homeless?
http://www.declareyourself.com/voting_faq/state_by_state_info_2.html
chuck in st paul commented:
@1 Granny, the ‘old folks’ have most all gone to the dark side and became Cargo Culters. Of course the young are no better with all the ‘school aid’ crappola.
43% pay no federal income tax. I expect they pay no state taxes either. We have become a kleptocracy.
ditto commented:
Maybe it should be only propety owners that are “allowed” to vote, since that was how it used to be. Property owners get b*tch-slapped every time an election happens because people vote that dont have to pay it.
timeline:
http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/voting.html
aprilnovember811 commented:
I say only those who pay taxes get to vote.
dscogin commented:
Ezra Klein’s idoit/genious gene has flip-flopped on him.
squeaky commented:
[Nationwide, more than 2 million Americans live in nursing homes or assisted-care centers. A 2004 study said nearly two-thirds of those residents have some form of dementia, a progressive loss of memory and other mental functions. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia.] from 2007….ezra is probably more interested in removing competent seniors from the voting ranks. there is no shortage of incompetent younger citizens.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_515370.html
KR commented:
Cut to the chase.
Only dems can vote.
/s
Chris in N.Va commented:
I’m surprized this pre-(not-even-yet)boy wonder is even suggesting we go to the bother of having elections at all. Hasn’t Bahbwa Wawa already declared that a moot point?
Why not go all the way, head-first up-Obama’s-butt, and just proclaim him Emporer For Life?
Ezra can then become Court Jester — he’s already passed the auditions!
Fionnagh commented:
Borrowed from another blogger on another web site (which was linked above):
“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything – Stalin”
Which pretty much sums up the Democratic party.
squeaky commented:
“.. just proclaim him Emporer For Life?” only if his throne is located here……
http://www.harthosp.org/InstituteOfLiving/default.aspx
Jerry C commented:
Commandment #5: Honor thy father and thy mother.
Why is it that most “intellectuals” are godless? Only a reprobate mind would consider something like this. Reprobate. Not a genius. My uneducated mother has more wisdom in her left pinky than this dote has in his hole brain. (hole, yeah)
johnmorrissey commented:
“Some people are more equal than others” from 1984 by Orwell.
RL commented:
In one Robert Heinlein’s great stories only Veterans could vote – a bit extreme, but better than this moron’s demented drivel. And as one, the more I hear fellow from “professors”, as a Vet/prof who has recently heard virtually NO ONE from “Harvards & Co.” come close any of the constitution’s authors, the better I think of this idea…
RL commented:
Sorry, cut/paste error – “fellow from” should be “from fellow
Mannie commented:
That’s because a person from Wyoming is worth almost 70 times as much as a Californian.
Sally commented:
They know the elderly in this country have a hell of alot of sense and are not going to fall for the smoke and mirrors. The are educated voters and won’t put up with the c-ap.
Da-n them; 1000s in the WWII generation die every day. Isn’t that fast enough for them?
AuntieMadder commented:
Is Ezra Klein really to stupid to learn from past mistakes? It’s because of young people voting that we have the current disaster living in the White House.
Don Rodrigo commented:
First off, Ezra Klein is an ignorant punk with a boy haircut who thinks the Constitution is “100 years old or something.”
Secondly, he’s inumerate (mathematically illiterate). No way can someone loose the popular vote 4:1 and win the Electoral vote.
Thirdly, the moron knows nothing about why there’s a Senate AND THERE IS A HOUSE.
Total dumbass. I would like to hold his head in a toilet and flush repeatedly.
MamaGrizzly commented:
The Left is afraid of the boomers, because they know the day is coming when the boomers start to rebel against the Left’s plans to do away with them. They want to remove their ability to effect change WAY ahead of time.
What horrible people. They want to kill all the people who REMEMBER what America really is.
Oldpuppymax commented:
TRANSLATION: Those damned old people are too likely to vote for the Republican!
Dan commented:
From the same brain trust that claims disenfranchisement at every turn. It’s ok to have illegal, undocumented, non-English speaking peoples vote, just not the elderly that still recall things like the failures of communism.
Oldpuppymax commented:
Hey Ezra, how about we take voting “privileges” away from those who pay no taxes or are on welfare!! That would leave Hussein with media types, college professors, union members and about 53 blacks.
Gandalf commented:
Tried to write a comment but can’t think of anything that isn’t obscene.
Rock commented:
The guy is a nut, check this page for some more of his ramblings http://www.groundreport.com/paul
Lord, Socialism really is a mental disorder.
tommy mc donnell commented:
i wonder if he had this idea because so many of the people in the tea party are seniors.
Rock commented:
Maybe if the same scale was applied to voting members on the Hill, na still a bad idea
What was I thinking? <I:-(
Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:
Seems to me that if anyone’s voting rights should be taken away, it would be those who are collecting welfare, and people in civil service.
ohiochili commented:
I raised 3 kids by myself with no welfare, no child support, no food stamps or free lunches. I worked two jobs and sometimes 3 to make it. Because of my family size and income, I paid no taxes until the year my oldest enlisted in the Air Force.
Now some of you are saying that I shouldn’t have had the right to vote because I didn’t contribute? So sorry I wasn’t a good enough American for some of you.
I thought only progressives were elitists.
lynched1 commented:
Holy hell Ezra is a dumb ass.
Rob De Witt commented:
You betcha, Buckwheat. Bring it on.
My only stipulation is that the voting test be in essay form. Handwritten. Spelling is to be scored, of course; Hell, I’ll even spot 5 points to anybody under the age of 40 who can use an apostrophe – or can manage to differentiate between “loose” and “lose.”
Once that little bit of triage is out of the way, you can base the rest of the exam on the U.S. Constitution. That’s fair, right? You can read, can’t you?
Gwillie commented:
Sounds like the 1/5th vote is back…
and they call us racist!
YoureKiddingMe commented:
Oh Lord, your poor Mother. I’d beat the tar outta you for acting so stoopid.
Joe Zellner commented:
Young voter #1: Dude, did you vote yet?
Young voter #2: What? Oh, no way man. I’m too hungover. I’ll do it tomorrow.
Young voter #1: You can’t. The election is today.
Young voter #2: Oh, yeah. That’s right. I better get down there. (Pause) Who am I voting for again?
JPL17 commented:
Possibly the stupidest political idea in all human history.
Molon Lobe commented:
Let me understand this, we should allow the least educated, least experienced, least worldly among us to have more say in how we are governed? People who do not have work experience who probably pay no taxes, people who at 18 can’t even drink in some states.
Just goes to show what a liberal arts education will get you in America today. It also shows why the Washington Post is only uuseful for wrapping fish and lining bird cages.
weed commented:
To answer his closing question, yes, the current system does make more sense than his proposal.
catwoman368 commented:
I was talking with my doctor today, breast cancer survivor of 4 years. I am 67 told my dr I would like to give them SS back as long as I can deduct the same amt from taxes. My husband and I have to withhold much of it as he still works at 70. He works for our health ins.and we pay too much in taxes so I think only tax payers should be able to vote. Guess we know what those death panels are for, us old people. I did not vote for that asshat in the white house.
#1AMERICAN commented:
“America should implement weighted voting to make voting more objective and fair, and give the young more power, because the consequences of political decisions will affect them the longest”
pure genius…that just happend 2 years ago einstein and the young punks had no idea why they were voting for the commie…just that he was their american idol, all hopey changey…it should be the other way around until you have gotten a job and worked for 10 years and now see how much gets taken out in taxes…then maybe you would become an educated voter…instead of a moocher in society
Madkanagroo commented:
ohiochili @ 59:
Sorry you had such a tough time; my sister-in-law had a very similar situation so I’ve seen how difficult it can be. Me, I lost a well paying job three months ago; I’m picking up what work I can while searching for something that actually pays the bills. But…
What people here are saying is that only those who are not sponging off the taxpayer should have a vote. I agree with some caveats: being temporarily unemployed or on welfare should not suspend voting rights, stuff does happen that we can’t control, but anybody who makes a *career* of living off the taxpayer ought to be dropped from the voting roles until they change their ways. In this scenario you would still have a vote though you paid no taxes.
Gary commented:
Walter Williams proposed an idea a while back that everybody retains their one vote as we have it now, but then they get an additional vote for each $100,000 in holdings that they have. Or something like that. I’m not quoting, but the idea is a system weighted toward those with more skin in the game.
Also, we should be tracking welfare benefits of all kinds paid to each person and only people who carry a non-negative net tax minus welfare should be allowed to keep their one vote. That’s me, not Williams.
Regime,
You’re right about that. And they have been trying forever to muddy the water on the 3/5 vote, hoping people will remember it the other way around, that we had 3/5 forced on us when we wanted zero. We wanted them to get the full vote (1) and 3/5 was the compromised we were forced down to, not up to. What’s funny is how many people in this country think the civil war was fought over slavery.
“If I thought this war was to abolish slavery, I would resign my commission and offer my sword to the other side.” General Grant
“If I could save the Union by freeing no slaves I would do it, if I could save the Union by freeing all of the slaves I would do it.” Abraham Lincoln
Gary commented:
before I get corrected, I meant full count, not full vote. I know the slaves had no voting rights.