Peak Idiocy: Obama Suggests Making Voting Mandatory

– Peak Idiocy – Obama Suggests Making Voting Mandatory (Liberty Blitzkrieg, March 19, 2015):

The people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do.
– Joseph Stalin

If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.
– Emma Goldman

Of all the idiotic things Obama has muttered during his almost inconceivably painful 6 years as President, the following may take the cake. It’s as if he’s just completely given up. Back to the golf course man, please.

From CNN:

The president whose major policy achievement is mandatory health insurance thinks maybe voting should be mandatory, too.

Asked how to offset the influence of big money in politics, President Barack Obama suggested it’s time to make voting a requirement.

“Other countries have mandatory voting,” Obama said Wednesday in Cleveland, where he spoke about the importance of middle class economics, and was asked about the issue during a town hall.

“Other countries are doing it”…has it really come to this? Yes. Yes it has.

“It would be transformative if everybody voted — that would counteract money more than anything,” he said, adding it was the first time he had shared the idea publicly.

Of course it’s the first time anyone’s shared the idea publicly, because it’s so fucking stupid.

The notion that forcing people to vote for one of two dynastic political families entirely owned by powerful corporate interests (Bush vs. Clinton) would solve the money in politics problem is incomprehensibly stupid.

At least 26 countries have compulsory voting, according to the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Failure to vote is punishable by a fine in countries such as Australia and Belgium; if you fail to pay your fine in Belgium, you could go to prison.

The one trait that unites all authoritarians is the love of coercion and force. Obama, as usual, doesn’t disappoint.

Interestingly, Brazil is one of those nations with mandatory voting. Let’s see how that’s been working out for them lately. From the Wall Street Journal:

BRASÍLIA—Political opponents of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff are pressuring authorities to investigate her in connection with a widening corruption scandal that has sunk her approval ratings and threatens to engulf her government.

Opposition leaders are asking Brazil’s Supreme Court to give the green light to prosecutors to determine whether the president played a role in a ring that allegedly looted millions of dollars from state-controlled oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA and funneled bribes to politicians.

More than a million Brazilians took to the streets in dozens of cities on Sunday, many of them calling for the president to resign or be impeached.

Boosting public opinion will be a challenge for Ms. Rousseff, whose approval rating has fallen to a record low. Just 13% of Brazilians say she is doing a “good or excellent” job, while 62% rate her performance as “bad or terrible,” according to figures published Wednesday by the Datafolha polling firm. Corruption was a top grievance in the protests, according to pollsters.

Many Brazilians also blame Ms. Rousseff for her handling of Brazil’s economy, which is teetering on recession and suffering from high inflation and rising unemployment.

Yes, it’s becoming quite clear that mandatory voting creates positive outcomes.

Let’s also recall Joseph Stalin’s quote at the top. All authoritarian leaders throughout history knew that there’s no better way to claim false legitimacy than with sham elections in which everybody votes. Perhaps this is exactly what Obama is thinking.

For related articles, see:

Former Aide to Bill Clinton Speaks – “My Party Has Lost its Soul”

Neither Republicans nor Democrats Top 40% Favorability in Latest Gallup Poll for First Time Ever

Thoughts on Election Day: Relax—Both Parties Are Going Extinct

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger