Koci (pronounced ko-chee), my amigo and suitemate in Austin, has had a Xanga running for quite a while that I hadn't linked out of pure ignorance. Time to correct that.
While I'm at it, I spotted a new entry of his that looked pretty interesting. It's a rant on the obliviousness of American voters and he toys with the idea of restricting voting to only the informed. Since I don't have a Xanga account with which to post comments, I'll throw one up here:
At the start of the rule of the Constitution, Koci's system was actually in place. There wasn't necessarily a multiple-choice test to show competency, but there was a system nonetheless. The idea? Only landed white males could vote. And, leaving the modern value of equality out of the equation for a minute, it worked. It was the closest thing America had at the time to an aristocracy, and they were by and large very informed people. Political arguments, nowadays reserved for the intelligentsia at coffee shops, were abundant in bars. They were even the meeting points for "town hall" meetings and local debates. It's another one of those "what would the Founders think of today's society" kind of moments when we look at modern elections. So right on, Koci - you're up there with the greatest thinkers this country ever had.