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Sure, back when there were hardly enough people to populate the country. Perhaps I'm being dramatic, but what makes you think there'd be any land available to purchase by the time you came along? Owning land does absolutely zero to ensure that people aren't voting for what they think is best for them.
People die, people move, land will always change hands. Maybe land would be more expensive, but oh well. The land ownership requirement helps to filter out people with no skin in the game from the electorate. "Tax payer" (as in someone from whom state and federal governments actually receive taxes) would suffice today.
Owning property was simply a means to make sure people with the power to vote had skin in the game. The problem that Madison et al foresaw was with people who contributed nothing being able to vote themselves more largess from the State. That's the problem we're living with now. You can change landowner for taxpayer or in a different bent, apply Heinlein's hypothetical civic test from Starship Troopers (having placed life on the line in national service), or come up with a different metric. The point is to make sure someone is a contributor rather than just a parasite before giving them the power of the vote.
My response was specifically against the idea that you could nearly guarantee the American Dream would have died if using the landowner test. The fact of the matter is that the landowner test WAS in effect and the American Dream not only didn't die, it flourished. The landowner test did go away but the point of the matter is that it did not hamper the American Dream. The only conditions which seem to have hampered the American Dream have been the recent changes which correlate in time with the OPPOSITE of the landowner test, to wit, we have devalued the meaning of American citizenship and the power of the vote. It was only when we decided faceless bureaucrats should be able to control what/how much we were able to spend or say, when we actually elected someone who DIDN'T believe in the American ideals, that the American Dream started to die. We elected the opposite recently and American Dream appears to have started to revive.
Thursday @ midnight. With no changes since the last shutdown, we're primed for another one.
I'm firmly in favor of voters having to pass a US citizenship test (comparable to that required to become a naturalized citizen) prior to being able to vote. In olden times (prior to the 1970s), this used to be called "passing 5th grade civics"...
Damn straight.Quote:
Originally Posted by TFOGGER
If you're unarmed, you are a victim
Yeah....Like.
Except that it will be leftists who write the test so the correct answer to the question "Who does the Second Amendment guarantee the right to keep and bare arms?" will be "The National Guard" and other leftist BS.Quote:
Originally Posted by TFOGGER
Not to mention that whole barrier to rights thing.