OSCE invited to monitor U.S. election, Texas say F off.

[Mage246]

It's a bit ironic that Republicans are favoring increased government regulations. They should be favoring deregulating the voting system so vote creators will feel empowered to create votes. All of this unnecessary regulation is keeping the invisible hand of the people from functioning as God and Ayn Rand intended.

 

[Mad Vader]

Why yes, that's a Republican secret, regulations are there to help them win, otherwise they are unamerican. It's all about race relations until the demographics force them to get cemtered.
Then they'll get inclusive and rational.

 

[Sir Saladin]

That makes sense. The vote creators would naturally feel the urge to create votes if the voting system were deregulated. Just like the federal government the voting system is way too big as well, we need smaller voting along with smaller government.

One idea I have to shrink the government would be to trim the Supreme Court down to just three judges and eliminate one of the secret service bodyguards by making the vice president into one of them. For smaller voting charge $500,000 for the voter ID card but make it a punch card, so after each time you vote with it you get a hole punched in it, after you get fifty hole punches you get a free tank of gasoline.

 

[Mage246]

I bet if they just deregulated voting vote creators would immediately respond by creating a surplus of votes, which we could then export and sell overseas. It's about time this country got back its ability to produce goods that foreigners want at a competitive price. Every time I think of a crate of votes stamped with "Made in the USA" being shipped off to China I get a little teary-eyed.

 

[wrc]

That makes sense. The vote creators would naturally feel the urge to create votes if the voting system were deregulated. Just like the federal government the voting system is way too big as well, we need smaller voting along with smaller government.

One idea I have to shrink the government would be to trim the Supreme Court down to just three judges and eliminate one of the secret service bodyguards by making the vice president into one of them. For smaller voting charge $500,000 for the voter ID card but make it a punch card, so after each time you vote with it you get a hole punched in it, after you get fifty hole punches you get a free tank of gasoline.

Actually it's a lot easier to choose a dictator so you don't have to vote at all.
Anyway, regulations will apply to both republicans and democrats so anyone can take advantage of them.

 

[Mage246]

It's not that the regulation is illogical or unequal, just that it attacks a problem that generally doesn't exist and has the side effect of turning eligible voters away from the voting booth. A disproportionate share of voters who would be turned away would be elderly and/or minorities, who generally vote Democrat. It's clear that it was only introduced to hurt the Democrats. It's not illegal, but it is slimy and immoral.

 

[wrc]

I certainly agree with the last sentence. Still, democrats should have taken care of stuff like this when they got majority in congress and "took" White House, 4 years ago.

 

[Mage246]

"Taken care of stuff like this"? How on earth would they do that? Besides, the Constitution gives the States the power to set their own voting rules, as long as they don't violate anyone's rights or break the law.

 

[wrc]

I thought that those regulations as well as voting laws needed to be passed by congress. If not, Texas is pretty much ****ed up.

 

[Mage246]

In order to override Texas's regulations at the federal level, it requires the Supreme Court to judge a voting rule unconstitutional (they didn't) or an Amendment to the Constitution (such as the 24th Amendment, which outlawed poll taxes as a requirement to vote in federal elections).

 

[Almalexia]

I've never really understood the hoopla about the Voter ID Legislation. Like, the fundamental principle of the argument against it doesn't make sense to me. 

 

[Mage246]

It's more that the fundamental argument for it - to combat voter fraud - is unnecessary, since there really isn't any voter fraud going on. If this was legislation to combat a legitimate problem, I'd be all for it. But instead, this is being implemented to disenfranchise voters.

 

[Almalexia]

Well as it stands, doesn't that mean an illegal immigrant could vote in our elections?

 

[Mage246]

No, because they couldn't register to vote.

 

[Almalexia]

How does one register to vote in any case? Honestly I've never been too interested in doing so, so I don't know all that much.

 

[rejenorst]

Sounds like it is consistent on a national level. Texas doesn't decide foreign policy for the rest of the country.

No ****, and my position is that they maintain that consistency. I am unsure if the Federal Government is within its rights to enforce cooperation with the OSCE among the states. If it is; then they should, because if a foreign country allows its own states to selectively choose when and where to allow foreign election monitors then the U.S. won't have enough clout to insist or suggest that the states of other countries accept them.

 

[Almalexia]

Well I think the so-called "hypocrisy" is due to the perception of relative democratic development. Belarus, for example, is hardly a model for democracy, and Russia is still quite in the process of solidifying its democratic institution, so to be subjected to the same scrutiny these states get could very well be taken as an insult, seeing as the US has been a democracy for well over 200 years.

 

[rejenorst]

Election monitors are not in a country based one the length of time it has been a democracy but based on the level of concern as to its democratic practices in some cases its a standard practice for transparencies sake. In this case its U.S. rights organizations that wanted them to come in and there is and has been sufficient concerns in the past. Belarus and Russia may be far from perfect but its not advisable to set precedents in your own country and then demand the opposite of other countries.

As a tool of diplomacy alone I see the merit in this. The U.S. has been accused of double standards on a wide range of topics most notably its foreign policy. So why bother handing out more unnecessary ammunition?

As for the states being insulted because they are the Great States of 'Merica is just childish and not worthy of a calm collected political authority within a World Super Power.

 

[Almalexia]

As for the states being insulted because they are the Great States of 'Merica is just childish and not worthy of a calm collected political authority within a World Super Power.

When has a World Super Power ever been calm and collected?  Power always corrupts, you know that.

 

[rejenorst]

I know...  but I have a dream.... the 'Merican dream.... 

Ie: Its easier to tell other countries what to do when the facade of being a benevolent Super Power isn't crumbling (Thereby hopefully having plenty of supporters).