h a l f b a k e r yThe embarrassing drunkard uncle of invention.
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Voters are permitted to record their voting opinions, preferences and intentions in their will.
At every subsequent election, a vote is cast in the way they would have wished on their behalf by their executor, heirs and successors, ad infinitum.
May seem nonsensical, but on consideration appears
no more nonsensical than many of your other forms of "Democracy".
Captain Pike
http://www.spscript...on8/CaptainPike.jpg To whom [bungston] refers, was a charcter from "Star Trek" that was severely injured (to the point of incapacitation) [Jinbish, Sep 29 2010]
Private Pike
http://newsimg.bbc....inwaringpike203.jpg Character from UK tv show "Dad's Army". Commonly referred to as 'You stupid boy!', by his boss, Captain Mainwaring (played by Arthur Lowe - narrator of the old Mr. Men cartoons and the soon to be released [hippo] production, 'Mr. Mad Men') [Jinbish, Sep 29 2010]
dead voters
http://www.redstate...ust-keep-on-voting/ [xandram, Sep 29 2010]
https://en.m.wikipe...hout_representation
[hippo, Jun 25 2024]
[link]
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I'm seeing canvassers in graveyards, getting the vote out. |
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I'm seeing lots of candidate deed-poll changes into the name of, say, Abraham Lincoln. |
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I'm seeing changes in the laws on inheritance tax. |
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I'm seeing post-mortem carpet-bagging, whereby certain lawyers become the psephological executors of large numbers of homeless derelicts with short life-expectancies. Hilarity ensues. |
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I'm seeing a revival of the republican Roman trend for powerful families to minimise their number of children, so as to maximise the political power per child. "One day, nephew, all these votes will be yours!" |
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A macabre, mummified croissant for you, [8th]! [+] |
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This should be "Voting Rights for the Dead," or "Suffrage for the Dead," or even "Civil Rights for the Dead." Giving the dead the civil rights of the living is a cause that remarkably hasn't resulted in great throngs around the reflecting pool in DC. They have some rights by way of their wills, but so many they've lost, simply by dying. Do you lose your rights when you fall asleep? When you fall into a coma? When you become a zombie? |
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More consequences: smoothing over (or at least delaying) of periods of political switching red to blue to red to blue; global war becoming an attractive option for a party keen to cling to power for a generation; death-bed 'repentances'; arguments in the courts of marginal constituencies on the validity or otherwise of the testamentary documents of recent corpses; conditionality being introduced to wills and a whole raft of litigation and commentary thereon also. |
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I envision a Captain Pike like device with a preserved head mounted on a rolling file able to answer questions about candidates / ballot issues with a green or red light. Alternatively there could be a Magic 8 ball like device in front of the head. |
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+ I know they already count the votes of the dead, so might as well be what one wishes! |
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You could argue that this is already the case. The laws aren't all junked each time there is a new parliament. Instead a bit more law is added by each new administration so, effectively, the wishes of people who are long dead are still being enforced. |
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I can feel the cold legal clutches from the grave. |
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If you're wealthy enough, you can establish a foundation,
which outlives you and exerts political influence, though not
by voting. |
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It's called a "Monarchy", [mp]. |
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What [Dr.Bob said] - all the previous votes of all the previous members of democracy are still well embedded in the history and inertia of our legal systems and traditional societal frameworks - the dead even have a body (albeit a beleaguered one) speaking directly on their behalf in The House of Lords - and quite rightly so! |
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Okay, to wrap up this 8th memorial I'll throw a match into the tender of politics and stand back. |
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"It went out. Maybe you need to throw another one." (The original Ouija Board message from [8th] also started listing accelerants, but I cut that part for reasons of length). |
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Adhering to the "No taxation without representation" mantra, extending suffrage to the deceased implies that the dead should also be taxed. |
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hippo, I think that what you are advocating is actually "no representation without taxation". Adhering to this principle requires that people without either money or sizeable liquid assets should not be allowed to vote. I am pretty certain that 8th would have heartily approved. :D |
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Indeed he would, [DrBob]. However I had in mind the American revolutionary meaning of the phrase (see link).
Note: dead people who fail to pay their taxes will be brought back to life by the tax authorities. |
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wait this is not debate commentary? |
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