Regular readers know the mariner is a fan of thoughtful ideas wherever they may occur. Here are a few that are contemporary:

Required voting: Recently universal voting came up on Fareed Zakaria’s show. It occurs to mariner that a citizen movement at the state level may be the easiest (hah) way to correct several issues with our democracy. If everyone were (a) required to vote or face a nominal fine and (b) automatically registered with their driver’s license or, as in the draft, registered at age eighteen, votes for Federal elected officials would reflect the cultural attitude and, of course, be immune to gerrymandering for Federal positions (President and Congress). It may possibly be immune to purchased elections (Illinois); even state elections would suddenly be unprotected by plutocrats.

There are two strong objections to this. First, given the spirit of the founding fathers in a time of slow communication, there are those who fear egalitarianism (rule by the population who are considered too uninformed and too irrational to understand national priorities). Those are called Federalists. They say such complete voting influence would contaminate the Electoral College and further denigrate the independence of Congress. It may be that the Republic may be truly altered from its 1776 political environment. But in 1776 communication is tied to mail on horseback; just consider social media – even Presidential candidates run their campaigns on a world-wide, instantaneous communication system.

Second, the sin of coveting would be laid bare. Today, Federal politicians have arranged election laws and political party politics such that it is very difficult and expensive to roust them from their lucrative, life long careers – one that the founding fathers never intended. A common citizen complaint is that lobbyists can buy elected officials like pets – the public be damned. Name a large corporation from Monsanto to Fossil Fuel to Banks to Google and the mariner will damn them as uncontrolled greed and irresponsible destruction of citizens’ rights.

Our nation was set up to assure freedom. Freedom from prejudice and abuse and the opportunity to accomplish independent and successful lives.

Every single person with one required vote may be the best option we have.

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Donald Trump: Donald is evaluated by the principles of Joseph Campbell . To encourage you to read the website, the mariner offers one quote from Joe:

“A hero properly is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or other than himself. – Joseph Campbell

See:

http://billmoyers.com/tag/donald-trump/

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Michael Moore: As a curiosity piece, see the following link. Further, in an interview on one of the news networks, Donald’s son said that Trump will turn over operation of domestic and foreign policy to Mike Pence. Trump will be an overlord with no accountability. Can one fire a Vice President?

https://medium.com/@MMFlint/is-trump-purposely-sabotaging-his-campaign-91b11fe07a91#.9pcv1e4rj

Ancient Mariner