I'm with Thrax on this - and furthermore I also think there should be some kind of current events test required before you are allowed to vote. Yes, I am a progressive - but I am also a populist/statist for the very same reasons. I believe in maximizing the prosperity of the human race as a whole present and future and therefore justify all my political views based on this benchmark.

at least until we have the basics of eugenic science down and can just artificially select good genes for all our children affordably.

that's some Brave New World shit right there

For a change I agree with Veta too. A literacy test should not be required, but some simple questions regarding the candidates or the legislation being voted on would be OK with me.

so what if you just wanted to vote for someone because you had a good first impression of him? say you liked westerns when you were a kid, or if you liked how he had the balls to play the sax on late night, or because you didnt like the other guy because he said he invented the internet.

its lunacy to say your vote counts for more because you are "smarter" than some other lowlife american that you can sneer at. for fucks sake people, this is america.

It's kinda sad if you guys aren't joking.

The type of society you are talking about is truly a terrifying one.

I didn't say smart/dumb.....but if you don't know about the candidates or the policies or the legislation, then why are you voting?

exactly, what's worse is single issue voters - who not only don't care about important issues facing the country, they don't want to know candidates' policies.

monte, you forget universal suffrage was never part of the founding fathers' vision for america. universal suffrage (among men anyway) didn't occur until after the french revolution and the first republic.

i don't think owning land is a good basis on which to base voting rights, nor do I think intelligence or monetary wealth are. i do however think some sort of test of basic knowledge on issues and candidate policies would be very effective in decoupling politicians from private interests and back towards the nation's interests.

why not just white people? it makes just as much sense as your test idea.