Noble Cause: Get More People Voting.

For our side!

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

In general, people who want to expand the electorate are members of political parties that will benefit from such an expansion.  History confirms this.  Every “save democracy” movement seems to think that the more people who vote the better they will do at the next election.  (They may be sincere about their “belief” in democracy, but that isn’t my point.) 

At the same time, I’m assuming that those who wish to make it harder to vote or register would like to see an electorate composed of more of their supporters.   (In theory they may also be “for” democracy.)

We now have the technology to register everyone and to make it convenient to vote (no standing in lines or missing work).  Such a vote can, using the same technology, be made even more fraud proof.  Will there be some slippage?  Of course.  The cost of reaching 100% would increase beyond what is reasonable as we come closer to the number.   

But are we serious about this?

Yes and No.  We need to recognize the self-interest in these debates. On both sides.  And perhaps we each need to take the “democratic challenge.”  To work for fair and free elections with maximum turnout, even when it might increase our chances of losing.

This is a genuine gamble, a risk.  A majority of all the voters might not protect the rights of minorities, nor make sacrifices to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity for lives of decency and respect. 

The national treasure, Larry David, plays a cynic in a TV ad who rails at members of the Constitutional convention who are giving the vote to uneducated people.  This is not simply fictional.  Many in the 18th century held his views.  Subsequently, our national ideology silenced most who, privately, are probably still horrified by the potential results of a truly democratic national election.

That is, we found it possible to believe in “democracy” as a totem of our national “greatness;” while in practice manipulating the size of the electorate.  We still do.

Hypocrisy? More complicated. Tensions between beliefs and interests are the human condition.

“Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried, in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
—Winston Churchill

“[T]he only title in our democracy superior to that of President [is] the title of citizen.”
—Louis Brandeis, 1937