Robert Heinlein gets called nasty names because he didn’t believe in the one person-one vote principle. He felt it would devolve into the masses voted themselves bread-and- circuses, with the subsequent loss of the republic. Now, he was a bit idealistic, in that, just about everywhere, there’s some group that doesn’t want Those People voting. Doesn’t matter where, it’s just human nature. The Turks don’t want the Kurds to vote.
Heinlein proposed several different schemes. In the novel Starship Troopers he sketched a society where only persons who completed a term of public service could vote. In an essay of Expanded Universe, he offered other schemes - buy your vote with 20000 Swiss francs (Ca 1970s), be able to solve a quadratic equation, and others. He suggested reading 'The Curious Republic of Gondour' by Mark Twain. This was an essay by Twain about a fictional republic where everyone got one vote, but could earn additional votes through education or public service. You can read it here. In case you’re wondering if he wanted to keep people different from him voting, he suggested having 150 years where only women could vote. He said his mother was forty before she could vote, so turn about was fair play. Or even go a step farther, and only allow mothers to serve as judges or Congresspersons. He definitely wasn’t trying to hog the franchise for men or only people who looked like him. The fortunate thing is that none of these schemes are presently active. If you are over eighteen, a citizen of the US, and haven’t lost your vote by being convicted of a felony,you can vote! So do so, in both the primary and general election. In many states you have to pick a party and register with that party to vote in the primary. This is done to prevent various shenanigans of persons of one party from voting for a weak candidate of the opposition party in the hopes of having a walk-on in the general election. Therefore, you have to pick a party to vote in the primary. So pick a party and get registered! You aren’t locked into that party and can vote for different people in the general election. Some states have pretty onerous requirements, like you have to be registered six months before the primary. That’s about now for the 2020 primaries! If you want to vote in the primaries, check your state’s requirements and get registered. If you screw around, don’t cry about it in March that you can’t vote in the primary in two weeks because you didn’t register six months ago. Get going and do some adulting. Vote!
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September 2019
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