The Latest Obstacle to Progress: Voting

Good job, Texas.

I'm going to be perfectly frank: not all people should be allowed to vote, especially my parents. Since they are both now naturalized citizens, they have enthusiastically embraced and exercised their franchise in horrifying ways.

Let's back up a couple of years. During the 2008 election cycle when Obama was campaigning on universal healthcare, my sister was unemployed and had no health insurance, as she had just reached the age cutoff for my parents' insurance plan. She's still unemployed, but hey, she majored in Art, what are you gonna do. You'd think that healthcare subsidies, or expanded eligibility under their own plan would be something they would support, but they didn't. They voted Republican all across the board, because...wait for it...Republicans are opposed to gay marriage. They would rather my sister not have access to healthcare than let gay people have a nice ceremony with rings and flowers.

You see, my parents are what can be described as "religious wackjobs." They are what is wrong with religion, and America, and parents. Unfortunately, they are identical to a large proportion of this country's constituency - they zero in on one or two minor issues or emotions and that's it. They cannot tell you whether we should expand government spending or cut deficits, or whether Keynesian theory offers a more compelling path to economic recovery than a trickle-down economic policy. And that's because they don't know and don't care.

So how does letting complete ideologues vote on issues they know nothing about yield the best outcome for our country? Shouldn't there be some kind of qualification test? (Yes, yes, shades of disenfranchisement via the literacy test, but this is really out of control.)

To bring this around full circle, I was having dinner with my parents the other day and true to form, my mom says, "We hope Rick Perry wins because we heard he had a prayer rally." I tried to explain to them that if they wanted to draw on Medicare or Social Security someday, it's probably best not to pick a candidate who thinks the two programs are unconstitutional. But hey, that's okay. He'll pray for you, at least! That is, unless he's already blocked you on Twitter.

I want to be blocked by Rick Perry too! That's this blog's new goal.