The US Ought to Substantially Restrict Voting Rights

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."---FDROnly 2 out of 5 voters can name the 3 branches of Federal Government[1].49% of Americans think the President has the ability to suspend the Constitution[1].A majority of Americans believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, even after the 9/11 Commission found that there were not[1].Only 1/3 of Americans understood that the majority of the world opposed our invasion of Iraq. Another 1/3 thought the majority of the world was neutral, and another thought we were cheered on[1].6 months after the invasion of Iraq, 70% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein participated in 9/11[9].According to a 2011 poll, more people knew Randy Jackson was a judge on American Idol than knew John Roberts was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court[9].Since 2007, Americans have scored on average under 50% on bi-yearly political knowledge tests administered by Pew[2].When asked, Americans can correctly identify the Party of their representative only 53% of the time, despite the fact that 97% of Americans live in districts considered to be consistently favorable to one Party[3].Americans think we spend 25 times more than we actually do on foreign aid, and more than 2/3 underestimate the portion of the Federal Budget spent on Social Security and Medicare[4].I could spend a lot of time showing how uneducated the electorate is, but unless my opponent challenges this fact, I'm going to leave it at this.So, these are, as FDR put it, "the ultimate rulers of our democracy".We are so screwed.If Americans can only do marginally better than a coin toss in identifying the most basic information about their representative, how can we expect that representatives will be chosen based upon comparison of their views, voting records, and future plans, against a voter's educated, thoughtful stance on policy?How can we solve the looming crises like the Medicare funding collapse[5] if we don't even know how much we spend on it? If we don't care enough to do a little research, how can we expect to get political candidates who are serious about addressing such a tough issue?How can we justly decide whether or not to provide aid to nations where the adults die of AIDS and the children of starvation, when we falsely think we're already spending massive amounts on foreign aid?This is a central failure of our democracy. There are major issues that need to be dealt with, but because the electorate does not possess the will to push our representatives in the right direction, nothing happens, and it's business as usual politics. One needs to look no further than Congressional elections to see this in action. Both Congress' productivity and approval rates are absolutely abysmal[6][7], yet they see re-election rates well over 80%[8]. The electorate rewards them for doing nothing, simply because they lack the passion necessary to not only care enough to be informed, but also to choose representatives who share their passion and wish to make genuine attempts to solve serious issues.America today faces numerous challenges with no easy answers, and no shortage of politicians, who, unprodded, are unwilling to address them. We face Climate Change, the Debt Crisis, our future in overseas military actions, our stance on gun ownership, mental health, drug policies, an ailing education system, sexual education, and many, many more things which require knowledge, and the will to act.This is why we need to restrict voting rights to the politically literate. Do we want to avoid the collapse of Medicare? If so, we'd better get some politicians in office who are willing to address the issue, instead of use it as a campaigning platform.Do we want to end up like Greece? If not, we'd better pick some representatives who are ready and willing to solve theissue, not pass it on.The only way to do that is to get voters who are concerned enough about that issue to have done enough research to be able to elect representatives on the basis of the quality of their ideas in regards to solving the problem. In other words, quality voting is required.My opening round is short, but that's because this is plain, common sense. If we want good government, we need good voting. That will require voters who have invested time in learning about the issues, in order to choose representatives who will invest time in solving the issues.Sources:[1] http://www.usnews.com...[2] http://www.americanthinker.com...[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com...[4] http://volokh.com...[5] http://www.washingtonexaminer.com...[6] http://www.gallup.com...[7] http://www.washingtonpost.com...[8] http://www.opensecrets.org...[9] http://readersupportednews.org...