The right to vote or not to vote..

[Goldwater]

I wish mandatory voting wasn't even a topic of conversation, like, ever. But here we are, millions and millions and millions of people who don't participate for various reasons. What happened to a sense of civic duty? The desire to make your voice heard? The elections don't stop just because you lost faith or never even had interest to begin with. By not voting, you cede more and more power to the most motivated and often, the most radical voters we have.

The thing is, unfortunately, there are some people out there who literally couldn't care less about politics. Those types of people aren't even going to bother trying to educate themselves, even if voting is mandatory, and IMO those people not voting is preferable to them making an uninformed vote.

[Goldwater]

I wish mandatory voting wasn't even a topic of conversation, like, ever. But here we are, millions and millions and millions of people who don't participate for various reasons. What happened to a sense of civic duty? The desire to make your voice heard? The elections don't stop just because you lost faith or never even had interest to begin with. By not voting, you cede more and more power to the most motivated and often, the most radical voters we have.

The thing is, unfortunately, there are some people out there who literally couldn't care less about politics. Those types of people aren't even going to bother trying to educate themselves, even if voting is mandatory, and IMO those people not voting is preferable to them making an uninformed vote.

My hope was that, by forcing a pattern of consistent participation, gradually people will become more familiar, more informed, more confident with the democratic process.  Rousseau would say that in order to find the true general will/common good, everybody's voice must be heard.

I'm going to go put on my John Lennon glasses and sing "Imagine" now.

Perhaps you're right, though I remain skeptical. I guess you just have more faith in people than I do.