I thought the most interesting thing about classes this week is what we didn't talk about. We were discussing mechanisms for keeping the uninformed masses from voting, and most people seemed at least a little willing to agree with the concept of a social norm that uninformed people shouldn't vote. However, as soon as we started throwing around things like poll taxes and literacy tests as requirements for voting, everyone jumped back from the whole subject faster than I could blink, but we never really talked about why.
Of course, we all know why poll taxes and literacy tests make us jumpy; they have long been instruments used to serve racist purposes. But I'm just curious; do you think we all would be so reluctant to even consider something like a literacy test if America didn't have such a difficult history with institutions like that?
I think we would have been more split. A poll tax does seem inherently wrong to me; there's just something really awful about the idea of keeping someone from voting because of their financial situation. However, at first thought, I don't see anything particularly wrong about wanting someone to be able to read before they can vote. You have to be literate in order to become a naturalized US citizen anyways. Isn't it natural to expect from ourselves the same thing we expect from others? I think that most, if not all of our reluctance at the idea of a literacy test for voters stems from the concept's racist past. Just something for us all to think about.
So, on the extremely tenuous theme of preconceived notions (i.e. I really wanted to put a West Wing clip in this post), here's CJ Craig freaking out over something on Big Block of Cheese day.
Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for the entire class, but I can tell you my personal reasoning as to why I quickly shut down the idea of a literacy test or a poll tax. As I stated in class, I felt that such methods to ensure that a voter is educated/informed go against the entire fundamental principle of a liberal, democratic government. As soon as you bring in those kind of restrictions, you immediately cut out large groups of citizens, depriving them of rights, and corrupting the idea of a liberal society. For example, a literacy test perhaps will prevent large number of (legal/voting) immigrants from voting. They may be incredibly educated on the voters and their beliefs, either by television or radio, but simply not have the skills in the english language to complete such a task. A poll tax, quite obviously, prevents many low-income voters from voting. They could be extremely educated on the issues and know exactly which candidate offers aid to their demographic, but because of the poll tax, they would be discouraged/unable to vote. For me, it is not a racial or sensitive issue because of what happened in our history. I simply feel that such restrictions are paradoxical to a successful liberal government.