Sample citizenship test questions. Funny how they ask "what are the 2 main parties of the USA" as if that is somehow a necessary part of being a citizen. hmmmmm
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.d72b75bdf98917853423754f526e0aa0/?vgnextoid=afd6618bfe12f210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=afd6618bfe12f210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&print=0&print=0&print=0&print=0&print=0&print=0&print=0&print=0
why would the citizenship test ask for the 2 main political parties?
ReplyDeletewhich is more offensive to our idea of citizenship: that we would have to acknowledge the legitimacy of the two cartels of power brokers that extort the citizenry? or that the alternative of minor parties and independent candidacy is not deemed as important?
getting the citizenry to acknowledge the two rival extortion parties (and vote for the lesser of two evils) gives the appearance of consent of the governed. observe how the political class gets so frustrated (even personally insulted?) over low voter turnout ... and proposes how to compel people to participate in their sacrament of voting.
the needs of the political class to be acknowledge for their prostitution and extortion "serve well-defined needs." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVZ_lLUIIyU
"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first." - Ronald Reagan
ZING!
ReplyDeletemore on the implications of making elections into a political sacrament. voting is markedly different than individual human action. "When four people sit down to dine, for example, each will choose the entree that suits his or her taste. But when the four have to vote on the selection of the wine they are confronted with a political problem. Those who believe their judgment of wines to be inferior to the others will give way, and, with a minimum of communication back and forth across the table, it is usually the person with the most knowledge of wines who is chosen to make the selection. But if price as well as quality is a consideration, even the least expert may cast a ballot for the vin ordinaire in order to protect his pocketbook." (Jude Wanniski, The Way the World Works. http://www.amazon.com/Way-World-Works-Jude-Wanniski/dp/0895263440 )
ReplyDeleteThose more likely to vote are those more likely to understand the implications of policy. The marginal voters who need convincing by gaudy marketing campaigns and experimentally derived psychological techniques (if not additional inducements or outright coercion) are those less likely to understand the costs of "experts" and "professionals" tinkering with the market of daily life through vaunted social(ist) engineering schemes. Habitual voters are more likely to protect their property from political extortion, while marginal voters are more likely to support redistribution in the vain hopes of living at someone else's expense.
“This is perhaps as good a place as any to point out that what distinguishes many reformers from those who cannot accept their proposals is not their greater philanthropy, but their greater impatience. The question is not whether we wish to see everybody as well off as possible. Among men of good will such an aim can be taken for granted. The real question concerns the proper means of achieving it. And in trying to answer this we must never lose sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot distribute more wealth than is created. We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Shortest-Understand/dp/0517548232
Excellent comment, thus the big concern to "get out the vote" is really to get out the easily swayed.
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