Legal Commentary

I have never completely understood why, in a country committed to democracy, we make every citizen pay taxes and get a social security number, but we do not make every citizen vote.  And, if I understand the most robust universal health care plans, apparently there are now serious proposals for forcing every citizen to acquire some form of health insurance.   I can understand the argument that health care is more important than voting, but these mandates need not be mutually exclusive. 

In other words, I wish there was as much commitment to universal voting as there now seems to be for universal health care.  In this context, consider this fact: despite record turn-out for the 2004 election, George Bush received just over 60 million votes, which represents only roughly 20% of the total US population. 

As a real-politik matter, I have a suspicion why there  is no discussion in the major parties about universal voting: lots of new and different people voting might mean lots of new and different people getting elected.  As much as this year is about change, I suspect that kind of change gets few of those in power inside-the-Beltway really excited.