[2ndDivisionVet]

Wasn't it Starship Troopers where only veterans could vote or hold office?

[BigSkyFreeper]

Judson Phillips is a bozo whose using the Tea Party to feather his nest.

[KoRn]

If you don’t pay federal taxes, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote in a federal election.

Simple as that.

[FrankR]

[econjack]

The original intent of the Constitution required property ownership to vote. I'm not so sure I'd be that strict, as there are non-property owners (e.g., a lot of retired people) who should vote. HOWEVER, I do think you should be required to pass a current events test to vote. Perhaps ten questions given while you're waiting in line. The questions would be random from a of, say, 50 questions.

I'd be happy to draft the questions.

[Loud Mime]

Winston Churchill said that the best case against democracy was a five minute conversation with the average voter.

For good government you need principled voters who will not vote for riches out of the treasury. That is NOT the Obama voter.

[danielmryan]

Yes, that was the political background of Starship Troopers. However, Robert Heinlein explicitly said later (and indirectly said therein) that about 95% of "veterans" would be close to what we'd call retired civil servants.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

There should be a substantial civics exam involved to qualify.

[Arthur McGowan]

Only men who are married and have children and live with their children and the mother of the children—or, if the mother is deceased, lived with her until her death.

[Arthur McGowan]

There is no such person as the “Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”

There is, however, such a person as the “Chief Justice of the United States.”

[ROTB]

Yes.

“Medic!!!”

# votes awarded per commitment according to my system:

1 = citizen
10 = taxpayer for 5 years (seals out most of those under 27)
100 = property owner
1000 = veteran (has the biggest say, since has the most to lose. Extends to surviving spouse until she remarries).

[radpolis]

The whole notion is incredibly stupid.

Most property owners in the US are not owners at all, because they have a note for the property.

And why should somebody who inherited property be as qualified to vote as somebody who bought their property outright or somebody who rents?

Lastly, nobody owns property in the United States. We have a “basket of rights” and rent it from the government, who can take it anytime it wants if you don’t pay your property taxes or can take it from you through eminent domain and can regulate it death through the police powers of the state.

We already live in a totalitarian state and freedom is illusory.

We are just human batteries in a government Matrix.

[Will88]

Only taxpayers and retired people who were taxpayers should be allowed to vote. And everyone who worked would be pay at least a small amount of federal tax.

[bgill]

I'd say proof you're an American citizen, proof you are who you claim to be, speak fluent English, not incarcerated at the time, and able to pass a pre-voting test of the issues at hand.

[The Comedian]

Nobody should be able to "vote" any piece of any other person or his property. It's mob theft, nothing more honorable than that.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[Nonstatist]

I thought Buchanan was a populist? He sounds incoherent.

[Walts Ice Pick]

If you let people who live off of government money (welfare, unemployment, Social Security) vote, what is to keep them from just voting themselves more money?

[SecondAmendment]

IMHO a good start would be to restrict voting only to U.S. citizens !

[Lancey Howard]

Pat is exactly right.
Losers, bums, deadbeats, and parasites can vote themselves other people’s money by electing all-too-willing Democrats to confiscate the loot for them at gunpoint.

[FTJM]

Phillips comment in context:

PHILLIPS: The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.

[abigailsmybaby]

And what a mental giant Matthews is when it comes to American history. A legend in his own mind I’m sure.