Too Dumb to Vote
Danny Harrell
Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: Opinion
Why should we be allowed to vote? That's a question that I have been asking myself lately.
Do we have a right to vote? No, we don't. I know some of you are already getting
upset and turning on your computers so that you can write an angry letter to the editor, but before you do that, you might want to finish reading the article.
Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it say that we have a right to vote. Go ahead, check it, but it's not there. Most people mistake the 14th and 15th amendments
for the right to vote, but that's not what they do. These amendments only guarantee that you will not be discriminated
against when you're voting; they don't give you the right to actually vote.
Voting is a privilege, not a right.
Most people believe that when they vote in a presidential race that their vote actually helps to elect the president, but that's not exactly true. If you remember from your high school history classes, you learned something about an electoral college.
This electoral college actually elects the president.
If the number of votes counted, then Al Gore would have won the 2000 presidential election
and the youth of America would be supporting John McCain because we wouldn't want another four years of Gore.
What I don't understand is why all of our votes have to count the same. Sure everyone should be able to voice their opinion and be able to vote, but why do the doctors', lawyers' and well-educated college students' votes count the same as the now professional fisherman's, living on disability because he cut off a finger while working as a mechanic, vote?
The fisherman is going to vote for the candidate who says he or she is going to get him the most money on his disability check that he has to have to survive. This guy shouldn't have to work, because he's disabled. Seriously, it takes a well-oiled, 10-fingered superhuman machine to flip a burger, right?
I think that when we go to vote, we should have to answer a few questions before our vote is actually counted. If you can't name your state's senator, your vote doesn't count. If you don't know what the candidates did before they were nominated
to run for president, your vote doesn't count. If you can't answer a few simple questions about the politics and the political
view of the candidate, then you're too dumb to vote. If you're going to vote, you need to know a little bit more than how the candidate feels about gay marriage or abortion.
So the question is: if our votes don't count, then why should we vote? Well, a wiseman once gave me a little piece of advice that I'm sure most of you have heard throughout the years: "If you don't vote, you can't bitch."
Do we have a right to vote? No, we don't. I know some of you are already getting
upset and turning on your computers so that you can write an angry letter to the editor, but before you do that, you might want to finish reading the article.
Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it say that we have a right to vote. Go ahead, check it, but it's not there. Most people mistake the 14th and 15th amendments
for the right to vote, but that's not what they do. These amendments only guarantee that you will not be discriminated
against when you're voting; they don't give you the right to actually vote.
Voting is a privilege, not a right.
Most people believe that when they vote in a presidential race that their vote actually helps to elect the president, but that's not exactly true. If you remember from your high school history classes, you learned something about an electoral college.
This electoral college actually elects the president.
If the number of votes counted, then Al Gore would have won the 2000 presidential election
and the youth of America would be supporting John McCain because we wouldn't want another four years of Gore.
What I don't understand is why all of our votes have to count the same. Sure everyone should be able to voice their opinion and be able to vote, but why do the doctors', lawyers' and well-educated college students' votes count the same as the now professional fisherman's, living on disability because he cut off a finger while working as a mechanic, vote?
The fisherman is going to vote for the candidate who says he or she is going to get him the most money on his disability check that he has to have to survive. This guy shouldn't have to work, because he's disabled. Seriously, it takes a well-oiled, 10-fingered superhuman machine to flip a burger, right?
I think that when we go to vote, we should have to answer a few questions before our vote is actually counted. If you can't name your state's senator, your vote doesn't count. If you don't know what the candidates did before they were nominated
to run for president, your vote doesn't count. If you can't answer a few simple questions about the politics and the political
view of the candidate, then you're too dumb to vote. If you're going to vote, you need to know a little bit more than how the candidate feels about gay marriage or abortion.
So the question is: if our votes don't count, then why should we vote? Well, a wiseman once gave me a little piece of advice that I'm sure most of you have heard throughout the years: "If you don't vote, you can't bitch."
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