Democracy is Not Working So Let's Drop It

Fred Reed (http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed63.html) has some suggestions for weaning us off democracy. His proposal is to limit suffrage to those who are not utterly ignorant and dimwitted. He also wants to limit the kinds of folks who would be eligible for offices.

This may well be in a step in the right direction, but I know quite a few smart and moderately informed folks who would still vote for stupid things and who see our current government as "the best government in the world". Accordingly, Mr Reed's plan might not work to solve the problem of a massive, intrusive and murderous state. The majority of electors would still tyrannize everyone else.

The best idea would be to eliminate voting altogether and to select officeholders on a more time tested basis, such as the hereditary principle. Their function would be to protect liberty and serve as an example to their inferiors. The natural aristocracy might be called upon, and we would avoid the meddling and insufferable meritocrats. In the alternative, office holders might be chosen at random from the population, and this would provide an incentive to minimize the power any officeholder would wield. You wouldn't want a powerful presidency because you could never predict what kind of lunatic might be the next president.

To get to this point, however, we may have to phase out suffrage gradually. The fewer voters the better, and anything that makes voting inconvenient or difficult would be helpful. For example, everyone could be required to register to vote in person every two years at a location that requires effort to find. The polls could be open for shorter periods, and election days could rotate based on the phases of the moon. Absentee voting would be prohibited. These kinds of measures would discriminate only against the most apathetic and ill qualified voters without regard to income, intelligence or other characteristics. Libertarians might well come to represent a substantial portion of the electorate. At some point, no new electors would be created, and the franchise might become a legacy to pass on to heirs or to sell.

Other restrictions may be wanted to weed out statist tendencies and to promote an old fashioned American distrust of government in our electors. Let voting be limited to those individuals who can establish that all of their grandparents were born in the US. This would insure a more fully Americanized electorate less tainted by obnoxious foreign ideas. No public employee nor anyone receiving any government funds within the last 5 years would be qualified to vote as this would be a conflict of interest. Candidates for public office would be ineligible to vote for 5 years. Convert elected offices to appointed or inherited offices whenever possible.

Eligibility for office might also be restricted, and I am tempted to disqualify anyone who wants an office from holding it. The candidate would have to be at least qualified to be an elector and should probably be required to establish that all his or her great great grandparents were born in the US as well. Elected public officeholders would not be compensated. Part time duty would be encouraged. Political science majors would be ineligible for elected office. Term limits might also be appropriate. (I thank God for them every time I think of the current preznit).

Electioneering might also be constrained. No candidate would have any right to media resources and would be required to buy it or have it donated. Candidates should be fully liable for slanderous or libelous assertions, and false statements in campaigning should be criminalized. Each candidate should be required to fill out a questionnaire outlining his or her political ideology in detail (one that can be used to put them on a political map showing how close they are to some historic tyrant might be interesting).

In this manner, we may yet rid ourselves of the scourge of democracy. I nominate the descendants of George Washington's stepchildren as royal family. No, I am not in this family, so this is a completely disinterested nomination.