Should Some People Not Vote?

Tonight, 20/20 will air a segment by John Stossel that entertains the argument that perhaps some people should not vote. This would have been a great piece and offered interesting dialogue in a subject matter that most folks do not second-guess.

That is … until John Stossel inserted his agenda and bias and attempted to make a piece on discouraging young voters from participating in their civic duty.

I agree with the premise of the argument. I do not think that uninformed voters should be casting their votes but at the same time I do not believe the government should set up standards in order to indentify these individuals.

Stossel attempts to persuade the viewer that young voters are the only uninformed voters out there and they are being registered by the masses at concerts. This should cause concern shouldn’t it?

Future Majority claims, “There are many uninformed voters, but that category is not limited to young people, who are unfortunately the main target of this piece. Anyone who has ever watched Jay Leno could tell you that many Americans are uninformed about current events.”

There is no correlation with registering a voter and that voter actually voting first of all. Second, as Future Majority pointed out, uninformed voters are not limited by age, sex, race, creed etc.

Should we discourage FOX News viewers from voting because they are uniformed? Where does this stop Stossel? How do you explain that 1 in 10 Americans think Barack Obama is a Muslim? You surely cannot blame young voters on everything.

There may never be a litmus test that gauges ones political intelligence correctly but discouraging young voters from voting is not correct. You learn as you, I will claim.

23 years ago I had no idea of our political system. I was just an infant but 18 years later I learned and continue to learn about the political setup in Washington.

Should Some People Not Vote?

If, Stossel had left his agenda at home, he would have concluded that some people should not vote but it turns out that a large majority of them are not voting anyways because they realize that they are ignorant to the issues.

Should voting be compulsory?

This is a different question that Stossel attempted to confuse the viewer with his “civic duty” claim. I do not think people should be obligated to vote. In fact, please do not vote if you do not want to. In an ideal America though, everyone would care about voting that they would inform themselves for the cause.

Things are never ideal in the real world. The underlying message of this segment is crystal though. Young voters tend to vote for Democrats historically.

Am I crazy to speculate that perhaps Stossel is trying to persuade young voters not to vote because it benefits Republicans and not Democrats? Then, how do you explain why Stossel only made his case against only young voters that were uninformed compared to all voters that are uninformed regardless of age?