sci.energy

"Richard The Dreaded Libertarian" wrote in message
news: @ ...
> On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:29:38 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:
>> We need to go back to restricting voting rights to just property
>> owners. That would thin things down a bit.
>
> What's this "we" shit, fat boy?
>
> You wanna make sure only bushists and other nazis can get elected?
>
> Sorry - in the US, we have a Constitution. Maybe you'd get along
> better in one of those dictatorships where everybody marches in
> lockstep to the beat of the inner party drum?
>
> Why do you hate the Constitution?

I don't see any evidence in the above that Jim "hates the
Constitution" - his idea may seem radical, but it is hardly
unconstitutional per the original text of that document.
Why haven't you actually read the document you seem
to want to defend so vigorously?

Article 1, Section 4 reserves to the states the authority
to determine how Senators, Representatives, and Electors
(the members of the Electoral College) are elected.
Article 4, Section 4 guarantees that the basic form of
government of the individual states (and therefore the .
as a whole) must be "republican" (which in this context
would be equivalent to the common usage of the term
"democratic." Outside of these, I defy you to find any
mention of "voting rights" in the Constitution until the
15th Amendment (ratified in 1870), which prohibited the
use of race as a criteria for voting. But having "property
ownership" as a criteria for voting rights was the law in
most if not all states at the time the Constitution was written
and ratified, and changed only on a state-by-state basis,
with the last such requirement in place until 1850. And
again, while Jim's suggestion may seem radical to some, there's
nothing at all in the . Constitution which would prohibit
it from being adopted by any individual state.

Bob M.