A Magic Day, by Charley Reese, 21 Oct 2006 "Before a foreigner can become an American citizen, he has to pass a test about the country's history and its form of government. We should require passing that same test before anyone is issued a voter-registration card. Any native-born American who can't pass a test routinely passed by people from foreign countries doesn't deserve to be allowed the privilege of voting."
A Vote Note, by Paul Hein, 20 Jul 2004 "... after the general election, the loser for the Presidency ... pledges that he, too, will work with the man whose election, he had charged only a day before, would bring about the end of civilization. Wouldn't logic dictate that the loser express his horror at the appalling choice made by the voters, and pledge his undying opposition to the winner?"
Do Elections Guarantee Freedom?, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Nov 2007 Related Topics: George W. Bush, Constitution of the United States, Government, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald W. Reagan Discusses whether democratic elections achieve the purported objective of "will of the people" controlling the government "What if being permitted to choose a master once every four years is the primary 'freedom' left? Are citizens merely choosing whose vassal they will be? Many citizens today behave like slaves who spent their time wishing for a good master, rather than scouting up information on runaway routes."
Evidence of a Stolen Election, by Paul Craig Roberts, 19 Jan 2006 "Mark Crispin Miller's new book, Fooled Again ... describes considerably more election fraud than voting machines programmed to count a proportion of Kerry votes as Bush votes. ... problems noted in the GAO's September 2005 report ... The outcome of the 2004 presidential election has always struck me as strange. ..."
Sy Leon, R.I.P., by Butler Shaffer, 11 Sep 2007 Related Topics: Robert LeFevre, Murray N. Rothbard Recollections of the life of Sy Leon, Rampart College and the libertarian movement of the 1950s/1960s "Through the League, he actively promoted the inclusion of 'none of the above' as an alternative to listed candidates for every office. While his ideas have led a few states to include such an option as a non-binding statement ... Sy had a far more powerful thought in mind. If 'none of the above' received the majority of votes for any office, that position would remain unfilled until a candidate more suitable to the electorate could be found."
The Crazy Arithmetic of Voting, by Sheldon Richman, 8 Feb 2008 Related Topic: Democracy Reviews the "Voting Versus the Market" chapter of Bruno Leoni's Freedom and the Law "I like Wheaties more than Cheerios. So I go to the store and buy Wheaties. Except for the rare occasion went the store has run out, I will bring home Wheaties. ... If I vote for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, I have to wait to see if I am in the majority before I know if I get what I want. If 50 percent plus one voted as I did, great -- I get my choice. But what if 50 percent plus one vote for Sen. Clinton? I'm out in the cold."
The Fraudulent Meaning of Elections, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, 4 Jun 2006 Related Topic: Republican Party "The 'debate' in Congress illustrated how elections are now about consecration, rather than representation. Elections have become something for rulers to shroud themselves in, rather than leashes used by the people. Politicians are obsessed with maintaining the imagined dignity of their class, not in resolving doubts about honest vote counting."
The Myth of the Rational Voter, by Bryan Caplan, Cato Unbound, 6 Nov 2006 Related Topics: Democracy, Economists, Logic, Psychology "... if you know what a voter thinks is best for society, you can count on him to support it. Before we can infer that the policies that are best for society will actually prevail, however, we have to add the very assumption I am challenging: that the beliefs of the average voter are true. If his beliefs are false, his good intentions lead him to support policies that are less than optimal, and possibly just plain bad."
The Voting Ritual, by Butler Shaffer, 24 Oct 2006 "Rather than dutifully going to the polls to select from a narrow list of options provided you by political interests that you neither know nor control, you might want to inquire into who is providing the cast of characters — and writing the script — for a performance you are expected not only to attend, but to cheer."
We the Sheep, by Joseph Sobran, The Reactionary Utopian, 7 Mar 2006 Related Topic: Democracy "It's bad enough being a 'citizen,' so I decided some time ago not to compound my troubles by being a 'voter' too. This enabled me to see the world with an exhilarating clarity. Suddenly all the politicians bidding for my vote became comical little butts ... At least I didn't feel I was their butt anymore. Their slave, maybe, but no longer their butt."
Why I Do Not Vote, by Butler Shaffer, 14 Nov 2000 "When we vote in an election, ... Our motivations for such participation – even if they be openly expressed as a desire to bring state power to an end – do not mitigate the fact that our energies are being employed on behalf of the destructive principle that liberty and social order can best be fostered through the coercive machinery of the state."
Why this libertarian is voting to re-elect George W. Bush, by J. Neil Schulman, 21 Oct 2004 "... I gave up casting my ballot symbolically in any race in which ... [it] stood any chance whatsoever in effecting a preferable outcome. Purists have told me ... 'the lesser of two evils is still evil.' I ... counter that argument with one taught to me by ... Brad Linaweaver: 'the lesser of two evils is less evil.'"
"Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss", by Sheldon Richman, 11 Jan 2008 Related Topics: Politics Examines politics and explains why politicians cannot be expected to lead the way to liberty "Note the dominant themes in the current campaign: hope, change, experience, straight talk. ... These terms, and there are others, are not meant to inform. They are meant to seduce. Unfortunately, most voters are waiting to be seduced -- by a sound bite, a smile, a possible tear in the eye. ... voters have every incentive to select candidates according to their own pre-rational prejudices ..."
Begrudging Another Battle of Ballot-Boxing, by Kenneth R. Gregg, 23 Nov 2006 Related Topics: Politics, Libertarian Party, The State, Taxation "Ballot-boxing is a process whereby one gives consent to being governed by another. Voting is the most common form of legitimization. It fulfills the purpose of political legitimization because one has tacitly and publicly accepted the principle that those who play the game must accept the outcome, no matter whether you are on the winning or losing side."
Democracy Versus Freedom, by Jarret B. Wollstein, Freedom Daily, Jan 2006 Related Topics: Democracy, Inalienable Rights, Rights "What of Western democracies? Things are better, but far from free of corruption, fraud, and manipulation of voters. Even in the United States, more and more people report their votes are not being counted. Electronic voting makes fraud easy (and nearly undetectable). Congressional districts are gerrymandered to guarantee that one party always wins."
Mexico's Advanced Auction on Stolen Goods, by Christopher Westley, Mises.org Daily Article, 10 Jul 2006 Related Topics: Mexico, Free Trade "Squeaky clean elections, if they ever take place, are unlikely to change the eventual results of corrupt ones. Perhaps this has always been the case, although it surely didn't matter in previous decades ... when executive powers were more restrained, making the president irrelevant to the average person."
Misguided Democracy, by George C. Leef, Freedom Daily, Mar 2006 Related Topics: Democracy, James Bovard A review of Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard "Attention deficit democracy is aggravated by the fact that most political elections are noncompetitive, owing to careful gerrymandering of districts. In the U.S. House, only about 30 out of 435 districts are truly competitive. The politicians have picked the voters they want, rather than the other way around."
Why Limited Representative Government Fails, by Michael S. Rozeff, 17 Apr 2008 Related Topics: Government, Limited Government, The State Presents a four-element theory of why limited representative government fails "... those whom we elect have a bias toward using and expanding government, while we have a tendency to accept the government we grow up with ... Voting plays a part in this acceptance. By voting, we can maintain the fiction that we are in control over the government. We can imagine that government is limited. We can view the voting cum government as a species of self-government, rather than the imitation that it is."
Attention Deficit Democracy, by James Bovard, 10 Jan 2006 Related Topics: Democracy, George W. Bush Electronic text of Introduction available at LewRockwell.com "Americans are supposed to sit back, confident that voting cures all political evils – as if the process for selecting rulers vaccinated the political system from harm. People are told that as long as they can cast a ballot, they will be safe. In a democracy, people are led to believe that they can easily apply the brakes to government, no matter how unstoppable it becomes."
