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Oct 3, 2024 - 8:42:10 AM

RB3

USA

2149 posts since 4/12/2004

Should idiots and insane persons be allowed to vote.

This is a question that will be before the voters of Kentucky in the election next month. It's part of a proposed amendment to the Kentucky constitution.

Although I try to avoid having anything to do with them, I don't really have anything against idiots and insane persons, so I'm not sure what to do.

Oct 3, 2024 - 8:48:04 AM

12859 posts since 8/22/2006

Question is: what rules or rule of thumb would be used to determine if a person or persons are in fact idiots or insane. Sure there are test for mental incompetence but for idiots? Woo we that’s a broad brush for surewink

Edited by - 5B-Ranch on 10/03/2024 08:48:53

Oct 3, 2024 - 8:50:07 AM

banjo bill-e

Tuvalu

14005 posts since 2/22/2007

Sure, whatever makes them happy, can't hurt a thing. I would just love to see the crazies become numerous and united so that candidates would openly pander to them! We have the labor block and the big biz block so we could have the insane block----that would be great entertainment! In politics "sane" and "insane" are relative concepts, and we iz all on da spectrum.

Oct 3, 2024 - 8:51:19 AM
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banjo bill-e

Tuvalu

14005 posts since 2/22/2007

I mean, if we let the idiots and insane run for office then we should also let them vote!

Oct 3, 2024 - 9:14:07 AM
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2645 posts since 1/16/2010

quote:
Originally posted by banjo bill-e

I mean, if we let the idiots and insane run for office then we should also let them vote!


Bingo!!!

Oct 3, 2024 - 9:15:56 AM

80348 posts since 5/9/2007

If there were tests for idiocy it might be that the one being found lacking intelligence simply didn't like taking tests.
Is there a test for sanity?
I guess there must be when court cases involve someone's state of mind.

There are many versions of IQ tests.What would be an "allowed to vote" number?

Edited by - steve davis on 10/03/2024 09:18:52

Oct 3, 2024 - 10:01:15 AM

Owen

Canada

15951 posts since 6/5/2011
Online Now

I guess I'm more questions instead of answers*, but I wonder how/why this came to be an issue (?) in Kentucky?  .... and why now? 

Is the objective all that much different than the accepted practice (?) of gerrymandering? [And who knows how much other jiggery-pokery that gets scant publicity?] 

* - in keeping with a time-honored [unwritten??] BHO rule. 

I suppose for society's "common good" exclusion beats inclusion as general principle. wink

Oct 3, 2024 - 10:07:05 AM
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153 posts since 6/22/2016

I'm not sure whether this is a joke thread or real, but the term "idiot" used to be an actual technical term to describe a measurable level of intelligence. The term was in practical use in psychology into the 1960s as a rating of intelligence on an IQ test.

According to the archaic classification scheme, persons with an IQ between 0 and 25 were described as idiots; IQs between 26 and 50 were labeled imbeciles; and those with an IQ between 51 and 70 were considered morons. Persons with an IQ of less than zero were considered banjo players.

Perhaps Kentucky is heading toward restoration of past practices as a means of vote suppression.

Oct 3, 2024 - 10:12:26 AM
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blazo

USA

497 posts since 5/16/2017

quote:
Originally posted by RB3

Should idiots and insane persons be allowed to vote.

This is a question that will be before the voters of Kentucky in the election next month. It's part of a proposed amendment to the Kentucky constitution.

Although I try to avoid having anything to do with them, I don't really have anything against idiots and insane persons, so I'm not sure what to do.


Sure, why not. They can have guns, might as well let 'em vote too.

Oct 3, 2024 - 10:22:20 AM

Omeboy

USA

3473 posts since 6/27/2013

You'll never here the General Accounting Office announce that we're going to have "a shortage of idiots next year."
Rest assured that there will be more than plenty of them voting in November.

Oct 3, 2024 - 10:36:08 AM
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DRL777

USA

345 posts since 12/12/2021

quote:
Originally posted by banjo bill-e

I mean, if we let the idiots and insane run for office then we should also let them vote!


We call those career politicians, correct.

Oct 3, 2024 - 10:37:08 AM

Owen

Canada

15951 posts since 6/5/2011
Online Now

Eulalie: "According to the archaic classification scheme, persons with an IQ between 0 and 25 were described as idiots; IQs between 26 and 50 were labeled imbeciles; and those with an IQ between 51 and 70 were considered morons. Persons with an IQ of less than zero were considered banjo players."

Archaic you say????

In the first regular, public high school I worked at [in Manitoba] in the early 70s there was a "stream" designation .... most people just called it "EMH"* ... it was short for Educable Mentally Handicapped.   

Almost hard to believe that's where "we" were that short ago.   The few that I've crossed paths with in the ensuing years seem to have done okay in life. Dunno whether or not any play banjo, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was more "music" in their lives than for us "regular" schmucks.... maybe  more to do with their families' [financial?] lot in life than IQ.

* - there seems to be scant info on the internet .... maybe it wasn't somebody's (?) proudest moment??

Oct 3, 2024 - 10:37:51 AM

RB3

USA

2149 posts since 4/12/2004

Eulalie,

I can assure you that this is not a joke; I have one of the ballots. The primary purpose of the amendment is to address voting by non-citizens and incarcerated criminals, but just for good measure the crafters of the amendment decided to include idiots and insane persons.

Oct 3, 2024 - 11:00:43 AM
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80348 posts since 5/9/2007

We already make it impossible for non-citizens to vote in national elections.

Oct 3, 2024 - 11:18:01 AM

62599 posts since 12/14/2005

I was taught, half a century ago, in Psych 101, that "sanity" is a continuum, a sliding scale.

And even earlier, by the author of the original TARZAN books, Edgar Rice Burroughs.

If I can remember the quote, it went something like

The Englishman looks down on the Frenchman for eating snails, while the Frenchman looks down on the African for eating grubs, and the African looks down on the Englishman, because "beefsteak smothered in mushrooms" is, in fact, "cow corpse covered with fungus."

Oct 3, 2024 - 11:25:22 AM

7779 posts since 7/24/2013

Wouldn’t that eliminate voting in Kentucky?

:)

Oct 3, 2024 - 11:29:49 AM
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7779 posts since 7/24/2013

quote:
Originally posted by RB3

Eulalie,

I can assure you that this is not a joke; I have one of the ballots. The primary purpose of the amendment is to address voting by non-citizens and incarcerated criminals, but just for good measure the crafters of the amendment decided to include idiots and insane persons.


I have put no effort into looking into this because it sounds improbable, but that said, once black people were allowed to vote they tried to put a literacy test as a requirement to disenfranchise them, they eventually had to "grandfather in white Americans" because they were illiterate as well. 
 

Last election less than 3 dozen non- citizens attempted to vote out of 150 million some votes. It's people trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Oct 3, 2024 - 11:51:47 AM

banjo bill-e

Tuvalu

14005 posts since 2/22/2007

^^^ But when that problem DOES exist then there will no longer be any way of solving it, as we will have given away our ability to decide our own affairs. But hey, as long as they vote for the "right people", no problemo, right?

Oct 3, 2024 - 12:00:46 PM
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3875 posts since 4/5/2006

Most people I know think all those of the other major party are insane. I would be willing to settle for one vote per US citizen, on a paper ballot, cast on election day. And no cheating! Which also eliminates the dead.

Oct 3, 2024 - 12:04:57 PM

Owen

Canada

15951 posts since 6/5/2011
Online Now

I dunno Bill-e ... it seems improbable to me that any problem (?) could be so entrenched that there could be no way of it being solved. No way or no easy way?   And forever/never is a l-o-n-g time.

You may have lost me .... when you say "given away our ability to decide our own affairs," do you mean given away to idiots and insane persons or to some other faction/entity/country/?? or ..... ???

Edit: Jd, what you propose might fly ... so long as an exemption is made for dogs in Minnesota. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/pets/2024/08/17/mayor-khaleesi-great-pyrenees-cormorant-minnesota/74817148007/   

I was in central Alberta in the mid-70s and the yocal lore was that the smallish town had, in some recently past election, elected a dead guy.  The story was that one of the candidates had died quite shortly before voting day and the burghers decided to "send a message" to the other candidates. It sounds a bit suspect to me; in any event I made no effort to check into it.

Edited by - Owen on 10/03/2024 12:15:52

Oct 3, 2024 - 12:26:30 PM
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banjo bill-e

Tuvalu

14005 posts since 2/22/2007

I am saying that once hundred of thousands of what were formerly considered "illegal aliens" are allowed to vote, in numbers which are decisive at their locale, then those who were formerly considered "citizens" will no longer be able to stop that from happening and will have to live with the results of that, whatever that may be. Those who think that being an American Citizen actually means something valuable will be in for quite a shock. We don't count for diddly.

Oct 3, 2024 - 1:33:33 PM

1840 posts since 11/10/2022
Online Now

I have been an idiot because I refuse to vote until there is a PhD in physics option. I dont expect Ill ever vote even if I lowered my criteria to a decent math or economics understanding. Apolitical I remain.

Edited by - NotABanjoYoda on 10/03/2024 13:33:51

Oct 3, 2024 - 1:50:07 PM

RB3

USA

2149 posts since 4/12/2004

South Jersey Mike,

For the elections in Kentucky that involve the electoral college, those of us who are card-carrying members of one of the partisan cohorts participate in a system that I refer to as "one man, no vote", because our votes have no effect on the outcome of the election. I'm pretty sure that most folks in Kentucky would be happy if the right to the franchise was based upon the color of the bill-cap you wear.

Again, I would point out that this is not a joke.  See the web page associated with the link below.

Kentucky Amendment 1

Edited by - RB3 on 10/03/2024 13:56:57

Oct 3, 2024 - 2:17:55 PM
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Texasbanjo (Moderator)

USA

30846 posts since 8/3/2003

Unfortunately, we can't keep this from being political. It should have been an interesting thread. Locked.

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