Thread: The time has come for national voting standards By Bradley Blakeman, opinion contribu

No, MW, I'm not an extreme Libertarian, I don't believe in open borders, I don't believe in free trade, I don't believe in the income tax which makes me a REPUBLICAN!!

You're one of the weird people who want to control everything through the government and call it "conservatism", handing out privileges based on whatever you think people can or should do instead of what the people can and think they should do.

It's an upside down view, because you believe freedom was granted to you, a leftover from the feudal and slavery days. Americans were born free, our freedom was never "granted" by anyone about anything, it always was, until people like you want to use government to take it away to fit your personal model.

Back on topic, I'm opposed to the "national voting rights". States are fully capable of managing elections in their states, I have absolutely no problem with how the States manage their voting. The problem isn't voting by states, this is their responsibility, their rights and part of their powers. The problem is illegal immigration.

Don't take the rights of States away because our federal government has failed to do its job. Trump, Sessions and Kelly are going to fix this illegal alien problem as well as the excess legal immigration issue and they're going to fix 'em fast, so just hang on to your britches and let them fix the problem. When they do, 99% of the concerns about illegal voting will evaporate.

A couple of things here are related. The right to vote is a national standard already in national elections at least. What we are looking at here is not federal standards about voting rights, but rather federal standards on how elections are conducted. This is eminently reasonable and I fully support it. We need federal standards. There are already federal standards governing elections, these were won during the civil rights movement where blacks were being systematically denied access to the polls through completely artificial obstacles. There have also been violations completely unrelated to African Americans, like slate voting and voter intimidation.

Absentee voting needs to be preserved as an alternative to voting at the polling stations and should be considered as a complete replacement. There are many advantages to voters. Instead of being pressured for time, standing in some booth somewhere, the voter can closely examine the candidates and issues at their leisure and think hard about them before submitting their ballot.

There is no right to drive on public roads. What you agree to when you drive on the public roads is a license to drive. You get a driver's license. ​It is neither a privilege or a right.

There is no right to drive on public roads. What you agree to when you drive on the public roads is a license to drive. You get a driver's license. ​It is neither a privilege or a right.

There were motor vehicles being driven on roads long before there was a "drivers license", and anyone with a car could drive on any road they could get it on. The right to drive has always existed. Then states started inserting themselves as the regulators of that right and to this day, it varies from state to state as to what is required to obtain and maintain a state driver's license.

States could eliminate the driver's license tomorrow if they wanted to or issue it once if you've demonstrated you know how to drive, which is all you need. And I think one day they will.

Americans are fed up with so much regulation, the cost of it, the time it takes to comply, and are really seeking a way back to a simpler life without all this government authoritarian nonsense. Just like "vehicle registration". You think you're free? You aren't free when you have to title a vehicle with the state and then re-register it every year in order to drive it. I have no problem paying sales tax on a new car, but once it's titled, then there should be no annual car registration hassle. The next time there's state paperwork on a vehicle would be the day you sell it to someone else and they title it in their names.

So yes, driving is a right and has always been so.

Does the government have the power to regulate driving for road safety? Only to the degree necessary for road safety which is simply ensuring you know how to operate the vehicle before driving it on a public thoroughfare.

Judy wrote (excerpt):

No, MW, I'm not an extreme Libertarian, I don't believe in open borders, I don't believe in free trade, I don't believe in the income tax which makes me a REPUBLICAN!!

I didn't say you were an "extreme Libertarian". Saying you espouse one of their beliefs is not the same as saying you belong to their political camp. For example, you support the legalization of drugs classified as schedule 1 drugs by the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). Additionally, you support homosexual marriage and abortion at all levels of pregnancy. Does your support of these things mean you're not a Republican?

Oh, and by the way, driving is a privilege, not a right.

Originally Posted by Judy

...

States could eliminate the driver's license tomorrow if they wanted to or issue it once if you've demonstrated you know how to drive, which is all you need. And I think one day they will.

...

So yes, driving is a right and has always been so.

Does the government have the power to regulate driving for road safety? Only to the degree necessary for road safety which is simply ensuring you know how to operate the vehicle before driving it on a public thoroughfare.

You are arguing with yourself at this point where you continue to make sense. The public roads are not owned by anyone, but they are governed by the state and nobody has a right to drive them, but they do have license. If you are on private property and have permission, you do not need a license to drive.

Similarly, you need a license to operate an aircraft. This is also a license, not a right and we are talking about the sky over the US. All of it. It doesn't matter if it is over private property or not.

With the Trump presidency, I think we can safely say that exactly who or what a Republican is up in the air as well.

The question of what is a right and what is a privilege is the crux of the turmoil going on in our country right now. A privilege is a special entitlement granted to a restricted group or person, either by birth or on a conditional basis and can be revoked. A right is irrevocable and inherently held by all human beings.

If we did away with privilege and just went by ones human rights we would have chaos. Immigrants would have the right to move and live anywhere they wanted. By definition privilege is the law of the land. Being an 'Natural American Citizen' is a privilege granted to a person by birth. A driver's license is a privilege that is granted on a conditional basis and can be revoked.

The understanding of rights vs privilege is really important because it is the root of most of the arguments going on in our lives today.

Do you as US citizens have the "right to vote" or is this just another "privilege" granted to you all by the very government you're supposed to control with that right?

You all are upside down.

The driver's license will one day be an antique, so let me know then whether you're driving by right as a free person or grateful for your privilege of a "peculiar benefit".

Until then, over and out.

Originally Posted by Judy

Do you as US citizens have the "right to vote" or is this just another "privilege" granted to you all by the very government you're supposed to control with that right?

You all are upside down.

The driver's license will one day be an antique, so let me know then whether you're driving by right as a free person or grateful for your privilege of a "peculiar benefit".

Until then, over and out.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right ofthe people to alter to abolish it, and to institute new government

The fundamental reason for government is to protect people's retained natural right

To avoid confusion with natural rights, the founding fathers had a more precise term for entitlements created by government: Privileges

The Constitution classes entitlements created by government as privileges, even if we sometimes loosely refer to them as rights.

Civil rights are those rights and privileges that government protects for all citizens.
Political rights are the privileges of participating in government by voting, running for office and serving on juries.
Entitlements created by social welfare programs are privileges, not rights.

Driving is a right, not a privilege. It is a right Americans have always had that became regulated for public safety like many of our rights. The right to drive preceded the states decisions to regulate it with drivers licenses to make sure people (women) knew how to operate the vehicles.

The right to vote is a constitutional right of US citizens above a certain age. That's why every time we want to change something with who can vote, we have to Amend the US Constitution to provide for it. Blacks 14th Amendment. Women 19th Amendment. 18 year olds 26th Amendment.

The right to vote is guaranteed every US citizen 18 years of age and older by the US Constitution. There is no "privilege" involved.

You all best wise up to the reality of your rights as US citizens, otherwise you may lose them one day without ever knowing you even had them.

I find this whole discussion very disturbing. Shocking really. Intelligent Americans brainwashed into thinking their basic fundamental rights are ""privileges"?? I'm bowing out of this one, it's too depressing.

Over and Out.