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To: flatsville who wrote (18499)	9/15/2000 12:52:01 AM
From: Oblomov	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Oblomov>>>>It seems to me that so many Americans (no connection to race and class) take the idea of individual freedom lightly. They seem willing to throw away once-cherished freedoms in the name of uplifting humanity.<< Flatsville>If you could give a example of the above I would find it helpful. Only one example? What about the affronts to civil liberties committed in the name of the War on Drugs? Both Democratic and Republican presidents have devoted many billions of our dollars to it, apparently to public acclaim. In your "be taxed to vote proposal" it seems you equate personal freedom with more money...which you would have if you disenfranchised yourself under your system...but no guarantee that you would retain freedom or civil rights and possibly no recourse to redress the situation once disenfranchised. In addition to economic liberty, there is political liberty. Political liberty is even more endangered in the U.S. than economic liberty, IMO. To what extent am I enfranchised by the current system? My vote has counted for very little over the past 14 years or so. I'm confident that most Americans view the power of their vote similarly. If given the choice between voting/paying taxes and not-voting/not paying taxes, do you think that any but a small minority would actually vote? It would make a mockery of our political system. And this is my true motive in suggesting this "modest proposal". -g- Campaign finance reform? I would join in your support of it if I thought it would do more than further entrench the reigning political orthodoxy. Why are almost all of the programs proposed by Bush and Gore so lacking in freshness and originality? Why does it seem that the two major parties simply "go through the motions" every four years? It seems unlikely to me that true political reform will come from either the Democrats or the Republicans.