Ezra Klein to geezers: you know maybe your votes shouldn’t count as much as the votes of young people
Someone has to tell me how this little punk ever got a job at the Washington Post? But then nothing the mainstream media does surprises me these days. It’s not just the absurdity that he’s using this proposal was a way to make a point, it’s that the point he’s trying to make is also wrong. But then this is the same Ezra Klein that thinks the Constitution is just too difficult to understand because it’s so old. Read my little mobsters.
Granted Klein isn’t the one who came up with the original proposal. It was originally proposed by some blog named Ground Report. But somehow this little whippersnapper uses it as a launchpad against the electoral college. And somehow I think Klein isn’t opposed to the original idea either.
Here’s the section from ground report that launches Klein’s rant:
Instead, America should implement age weighted voting to make voting more objective and fair, and give the young more power, because the consequences of political decisions will affect them the longest. Age weighted voting would restore power to twenty and thirty year olds, where it resided before the advent of medical science. With the aid of computers, it would be easy to give everyone a Voting Score, just like we all have a credit score.
Klein then takes great pains although much later, to say that he doesn’t support this. But to the outraged, he writes, we already have something like this to a degree citing the electoral college.
If your response to this is that it’s crazy and offensive, that all American adults are equal and so is their vote, you might want to familiarize yourself with the U.S. Senate, where a Wyoming resident’s vote is worth almost 70 times as much as a Californian’s, or the electoral college, where the presidency could be won by a candidate who loses the popular vote 4:1.
All of which is to say, we already reweight voting in this country. But we do it to give residents from small states more power. Does that really make more sense than reweighting by age, education, race, income or some other demographic characteristic?
Klein’s reasoning is pathetic but then to be expected from someone who thinks the Constitution is old and easily misinterpreted. The founding fathers insisted that each state gets two representatives in the Senate which was designed not so much to be a legislative body but a representation of each state as having equal status with each other.
The House of Representatives will derive its powers from the people of America….The Senate, on the other hand, will derive its powers from the States, as political and co-equal societies; and these will be represented on the principle of equality in the Senate.”
In other words the very purpose of the Senate was to ensure the equality of every state. The same reasoning was applied to the electoral college. One of its many purposes was to ensure that no single state or group of states could hold sway over populations in smaller states. In such fashion each state would have some voice in electing the President of the United States.
“There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections.”
But to include this in Ezra Klein’s column would require Ezra Klein to know something about the founding of this country and about the Constitution. But then the constitutions is really old and really hard to understand, right Ezra?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc4qHHIRcJw
This is why perhaps we should have an age differential when it comes to voting. Let’s say no one under 30 should be allowed to vote. Or maybe if you’re not a taxpayer you should not be allowed to vote. Or maybe, just Ezra should not be allowed to vote, at least not until he reads the Constitution or takes a course in American history.
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Clearly, young Ezra is projecting his own intellectual inadequacies into his articles.? Maybe he? needs a “Constitution app” for? his iPhone.? It is one thing to hire predominantly liberals for your news staff, but could you at least get mature ones?? Klein is his own argument against giving any more power to the, shall we say, inexperienced.
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As one caller stated today, perhaps we should make only taxpayers worthy of a whole vote (note to Geithner and Rangel: you lose if you don’t pay)?? How about age and experience being a qualification for MORE voting power?? Maybe business owners should get more voting power commensurate? with how many people they employ?? Conversely, should people on the dole even be allowed to vote at all, or should the be recused as effective wards of the state?? Should soldiers, particularly those in the field, be counted as two votes for their service to the country?? Maybe we should have a test to see if potential voters are smart enough to vote (or write for the WaPo….)?
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One person, no, wait; one CITIZEN, one vote.? No “motor voter”, no extended voting times, no unverified absentee voting, no voting without absolute picture ID verification.? Make damn sure that the votes of soldiers in the field are rush processed and counted.? Make sure all absentee votes are counted no matter how disparate the results.
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And let us learn from the third world: you vote, then your thumb is dyed blue to ensure one vote per person.
I think people like Ezra Klein should have 3/5ths of a vote.
Dims, you make the serious argument, I’m gonna pass. Ezra is an elitist dope with no practical knowledge.
NOW…Last week the movie?”They Live” was reffered to, and the week before it was “Soylent Green”. Today’s 70s movie reference? featured the lovely Farah in her debut. In “Logan’s Run” They just kill anyone over 30 in a magical ceremony.
Imagine the savings.
Out of curiosity, I looked up his (short!!) biography.? He was born, raised and went to school in CA (surprise, surprise) and graduaged with degree in Pol. Sci.?? He began as a political blogger, partnering with various others of similar ilk…I especially like the title of one of the blogs he was involved with: Not Geniuses.? ?His “prolific” blogging on politics caught the attention of Wash Post business columnist who facilated his hiring by that org.?? Was commentator on Olberman (natch) and still is on Maddox.? He’s a “devout atheist” – a few hard knocks may change that attitude, and perhaps earning his own money, and coming down off his CA. high, moving out of his basement and getting dressed?to work,?may modify the rest.? As the saying goes, “when I was young I thought my father knew nothing.? It’s amazing how much smarter he got as I became older.”
Ignorance is curable, stupidity is forever.? Mr. Klein presents with a terminal condition.
p.s. they obviously didn’t cover voting rights, or the Constitution,?in his political science courses….more likely, they taught him that conservatives shouldn’t be allowed to vote 🙂
A history lesson would do him no good as civics is a subject glossed over by most teachers, the subject does not follow the socialist indoctrination they received.? No citizen of this country should grow up ignorant of what it means to be an American.
Educational reform is desperately needed so things like the young Mr. Klein don’t grow & thrive.
The two most important things we all need to know and are not being taught in our schools.
1. Civics – What it means to be a citizen The Rights & Responsibilities
2. Money – Real world finances, the basics every person needs to know.
I think I remember ?Jim quoting ?his father as saying ” If you have no job you can’t vote”
Rethoric has it’s place and so does reality. Do you honestly believe that CT has the same “weight” in the real political world as NY, CA, TX, FL even NJ? Sure it has 2 Senators and the appropriate no. of Reps as the Constitution requires. It may have mattered in 1800, but now? As to the “suggestion” that “no one under 30 should be allowed to vote”, I would add that “no one over 80 should be allowed to vote”.
poll tax?? property requirement?? a couple of thoughts. . .
now a bit more on brother ezra:? “i think that the creation of a media environment that can sustain and propel progressivism is more important than any single elected official.? i’d trade a liberal bill o’reilly (or limbaugh!) for 5, 10 congressmen.? the media is as effective and important an agent for change as the legislative bodies.”? that was clipped from a 2004 article at laist.com.
he isn’t interested in the constitution, the electoral college or voting rights–he’s interested in getting people riled up using media as an instrument of change.? when the gov’t and the media come to loggerheads (and it will happen), it’s going to be something special to witness.
the real question is does the power revert to the people, or will the people realize that they’ve held it all along and fully claim their right.
I wonder what he’d have to say when he hits 40
Ezra Klein will never be remembered for his cerebral stamina. His career will never go beyond the Washington Post, unless of course he can cop a gig with club moron on MSNBC. A pitiful waste of an education!
One can only hope that someone disappears from the rapture while in Ezra’s company.??I think that would change his world view a tad.? Don’t you?
Judging from the enthusiasm of putting Ezra Klein down, I expect he will have a fine career and “laugh all the way to the bank”, while the commentators on this blog will get worn out.
NPD:? Narcissistic Personality Disorder.?? On Constitution: Klein thinks it’s old and too hard to read; on Obamacare, Klein says: “When I look at complicated policy, it?s up to someone like me to explain things clearly. If that takes a lot of time, so be it. I have a blog, and I?ve got a lot of space.????? Yes, It’s Up To Someone Like HIM to explain things! ? Like Obama, he’s here to help you, unless you’re too old or stupid to realize that you should follow and not question!
I plan to vote with my wallet, I’ll not purchase any paper, book or magazine that Klein writes for.
For the few? of you who may have understood Mr. Klein’s point:
[Removed by admin – too long. Just click in the link below…]
http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
There are age weighted pension plans, why not age weighted votes?? IMHO:? because it’s age discrimination.? Thought lefties were against discrimination of any type?? I must have misunderstood, or maybe Ezra misspoke.
Ever heard of the saying of “minding the elders?”
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, Ezra.? I think Sammy is right: Klein will have a career in the lefty media because they dominate and he says what they like to hear.? He is the new O’Donnell or Matthews.? It just shows that the lefty run education system is working for them.
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He will never have to address any “coming of age” revelations, because he is being kept in the womb of the leftist media, and will never have to get a real job.? I mean, seriously, how does an untested young tyro like Klein get a top job at WaPo if he had to compete against real journalists??
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Of course, I could say the same about our young president….
WOW, we all jumped on this one.? It reminds me?of a women I heard speak, who was 12 when Hitler won election and the next day at school the German flag had been replaced with the swastika.? Kids were required to attend school on sunday and told that if they did not their parents would be arrested.?? They were told that their parents didn’t know anything and they had to educate them, sound familiar, can you say Al Gore, Obama.? Us old folk, thats anyone over 28, just don’t understand the future and the bennies of central Gov. and distributive justice.? Hug your kid, grandkid, etc. today and tell them what makes this Country Great and it aint no elected official.
Thanks Ezra.? Every once in a while the Left confirms what the rest of us are thinking.? You have a very deep agenda.? The State you so badly want would have?YOU and your kind (lefty journalists)?on a skewer by sundown.
Sure, I’ll agree with that, as long as my age bias — long neglected by what we thought to be a fair, Constitutionally-based process — is retroactively applied, effective immediately and for the next five Federal election cycles: my vote is worth five of yours. How’d that be for you? That’d make up for all the vote fraud carried out by the Left over the past 40 years or so, and for all my accumulated wisdom acquired over the years and wars I’ve fought in for my country … which you, my wet-behind-the-ears “friend”, haven’t even had a chance to catch up with yet.
I’m saddened by Esra. He’s lost and doesn’t even know it. How do you live without knowing any truths.
You keep voting Democrat and hope for cradle to grave everything!