An Amendment to Restrict the Privilege of Voting

"All of these problems voting just didn't happen by accident, and it is just wrong, it's wrong, to try to prevent, undermine and inhibit American's right to vote." --Hillary Clinton June 4, 2015 The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. ...What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is [voting for] "Bread and Circuses."

'Bread and Circuses' is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be [they] producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader -- the barbarians enter Rome. --Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) Is there any way to delouse America--to rid it of the parasitic infestation that is sucking America's life blood away--killing the host while feeding on it? By "parasitic infestation" I mean the myriad parasites who feed off of America's largesse and blessings without any thought of gratitude or recompense. Across the board I see arrogant entitlement attitudes exhibited among the very poor through the very rich -- a supercilious self-centered gimme-gimme-gimme narcissistic moral squalor that affects all economic levels.

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"Is there anything that can be done to salvage the USA?"

In addition I see much social injustice. It is socially unjust that a bloated federal bureaucracy ignores its astronomically, ridiculously, unbelievably high national debt, thereby putting "we the people" in grave economic danger. It is socially unjust that the fiscally responsible states (and their taxpayers) bear the burden of propping up the fiscally irresponsible ones (with the federal government playing the "middleman" broker). It is socially unjust that our federal government far exceeds its constitutionally granted powers, and yet fails to perform one of the few, and most important, enumerated powers that it does have--protecting our borders. I look around and wonder, "Is there anything that can be done to salvage the USA?" To save "we the people" from grievance-mongers, political elites and other professional parasites? I think there is something. "We the people" need to stop treating voting as if it were some amorphous "right" that anyone walking in off the street can use (and I do mean anyone). Voting is not a right, it is a privilege, and a hard won one at that--freedom ain't free. When we let every Tom, Dick, and Harriet cast a vote in our national elections then we cheapen what should be an honored and respected patriotic duty and privilege. Look at the state of the Union for crying out loud. It cannot go on as things remain for much longer. James Madison and the other authors of the US Constitution knew that it was not infallible, and that as times changed, changes might be needed in the Constitution. That is why they made provisions for amendments, changes to the Constitution (e.g. in the original Constitution only white males over 21 could vote--in 1870 black males were included, and fifty years later all women). It is high time that an amendment was added to the Constitution restricting who can vote in national elections--and make such eligibility contingent upon some sort of service-work of no less than one year's time. No one has to do the service-work, but if they do not, then they do not get to vote in national elections--simple as that. Oh boy...I can hear the professional parasites squealing from here--if they're whining about having to show ID, imagine what they'll make of this. Be that as it may, what I propose is absolutely doable. The amendment proposed above is hardly a new idea. For example, Robert A. Heinlein proposed something along the same lines in his book "Starship Trooper" decades ago (if you grok what I'm saying). Please note that I said service-work, not military conscription (although military service would certainly be included as service-work). Planting trees, cleaning beaches, and otherwise improving our environment could be service-work. Helping to feed the hungry, teaching people grammar or how to read...the possibilities and opportunities are endless.

Instill a sense of pride in self and pride of place

The idea here is not to enforce some sort of rote uniformity (quite the opposite in fact), but to instill a sense of pride in self and pride of place. It will take such people: people with a healthy sense of self-respect and an appreciation and love for the environment, their land, their country, to lead us out of the state of social chaos and rampant greed we are currently in. The problem of the apathetic and/or "low information" voter will largely become a non-issue. As I say, those who do not wish to do service-work need not do so, but by their refusal they will forfeit any say in how the government is run at the national level. That privilege will be reserved for those have invested their time and energy in helping their country. Because such people will have a vested interest in America, and a sense of partnership, they will be much more likely to be fiscally responsible and otherwise careful with what they have been entrusted with--and they will tend to elect representatives who echo those virtues. No doubt there are many bugs to work out with such a proposal--for one thing I should imagine that any folks qualified to vote at the time of the amendment (or for some time afterward) will automatically be "grandfathered in" and retain their voting privileges. The important thing is to not have so many compromises included in the amendment that it becomes a watered-down travesty of what it needs to be. As the saying goes, "Desperate times call for desperate measures." I believe that if an amendment as proposed above is passed then the positive effects from it will be felt sooner than we might imagine. If nothing else, putting such a proposal on the front burner will keep the professional parasites busy fighting it and lessen their impact in other areas.