Thanks so much for recently printing the op-ed by E.J. Dionne Jr.
and Miles Rapoport for the Democracy Solutions Project titled, “What if America Held an Election and Everyone Came? Universal Voting Would Be a Step in that Direction.” What a great idea to require everyone to vote and to charge them a fine if they did not. If other countries (like Australia) have been doing this for decades, why not the U.
S.? Democracy is not a spectator sport. Everyone must participate and be informed.
It is a civic duty no different than paying income tax. It is pure laziness on the part of citizens who stay uninformed and do not vote. And no one said the choices must be liked.
If someone hates the choices, he can write in his own name. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, wrote in The Federalist Papers that citizens must be fearful of factions, especially extreme ones. He also said that the larger the pool of voters who were informed, the less likely the chance would be that an extreme faction would take hold of our nation.
In 2016, 100 million eligible voters stayed home. That number is way too high. People who disliked Donald Trump but would not vote for Hillary Clinton gave us this time of chaos.
They gave us the faction that we now call MAGA Republicans. How different the world would look if those 100 million took the time to realize the dangers to our democracy that Trump posed then and now. Have these citizens read Project 2025? I have hope that the Kamala Harris-Tim Wal.