Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Internet Voting is bad.

Author:William Crim
Posted:9/5/2000; 10:51:06 PM
Topic:Amazon's Cluelessness
Msg #:20902 (In response to 20899)
Prev/Next:20901 / 20903

I can't think of anything that will kill our country, or any other than having voting as simple and easy as pushing a button. Doing your civic duty is not hard at all right now. You have to dedicate 2 hours(or less) in a single year to devote to this democracy of ours. This is not a large burden, hell it isn't even a meaningful burden. It is just enough of a burden to prevent the truely clueless and lazy from forcing their idiocy and apathy upon us.

The internet CAN make voters more educated, but it won't. It isn't hard to do research right now on the issues of the day, if one is so inclined. However most aren't inclined. Holding more frequent referendums, etc won't solve any problems. We have problems getting greater than 60% of the public interested every 2-4 years, why on earth do you think the general populace is going to make an effort to stay informed enough to vote on obscurely worded bills?

Active participation in politics should take place at the local level first. However, this is the one area of politics where the Internet will do less good because by its nature, local politics is local. :-)

World government, of one sort or another, is inevitable. With better transportation and communication, global markets will form no matter what governments do about it. They can't stop it, and with only local and national authority, they will be powerless to reign it in. The only way to shape their formation is for a formation of world governing bodies that lay down the ground rules for the global markets. This could be the UN, but I seriously hope not.

The internet won't revolutionize politics or democracy because there are very few meaningful barriers to a person who wants to exercise their democratic right to vote or participate in the political process.(At least in the US)



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