by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

I can't really claim authorship of this idea; I got it from Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers way back when. Basically, Heinlein's proposal was that, in order to be franchised, you had to serve in the military. It's a start, but not what is actually needed. My proposal is that, in order to be franchised, you have to serve your country in some capacity for two years. This is the franchise for federal voting rights; state and local elections should be open to all citizens who have attained their majority. But, to vote for federal legislators and the president, you have to have given something to your country.

This is not a hard thing to set up. Basically, all citizens, regardless of ability (OK, there has to be a mechanism to gently weed out those of our fellow citizens who simply do not have the mental capacity to cast an informed vote) have the right to perform their two years of national service. If you are a quadriplegic, the National Service Commission will find a job for you. For most of us, though, the volunteer will be presented with three basic choices: military, Peace Corps or Civilian Service Corps (or something similar). If you choose the military, you go through a six week basic training camp run by non-coms from all the branches. During your basic training, you list your preference for branch to complete your service. Then the various branches fill their staffing requirements, first from volunteers for that branch and then, if necessary, from those who have not been assigned. The same general process would apply for the other two choices as well. In fact, it would probably be appropriate for all National Service Volunteers to go through some sort of six week basic training camp where bodies are toned and some basic information about that particular branch of service is imparted. (Those with physical handicaps who cannot do physical training will have something else, such as physical therapy, substituted for the exercise portion of their basic training.)

Actually, the details are, at this stage, unimportant. The important thing is to envision a National Service Requirement as a prerequisite for voting in Federal elections. If you can imagine something like this working, you will have come up with a set of conditions/rules/whatever that will allow this to work. The only caveat must be that it be open to all citizens and that nobody will be denied access to the system (which does not mean the system cannot have a means to, as noted earlier, weed out those who are mentally incapable of participating.) I think this is one of those form-follows-function sort of things where the details will be dictated by the open-to-all-comers requirement.

OK, now take this start and talk among yourselves for a while.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. ©El Zorro Viejo 2002-2005