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Originally Posted by DJ Happy
This, in my opinion, is another reason to ensure basic knowledge prior to voting. You are basically telling people how they should vote based on your own opinions and motivations. How is this in their best interests? They should be collating their own information and forming their own viewpoints. In essence, this practice could result in you casting 5 or 10 votes.
It's not that the answers to these questions are relevant to who should lead the country, but rather that being able to answer these questions would be evidence of being able to make an informed opinion about who to vote for. I would have no problem with your father-in-law voting solely on the basis of the issue of abortion - as long as he was knowledgeable enough to know each candidate's stance on it and his vote was an informed one.
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political action and parties hinge upon groups of people forming ideas based on simlar ideals. it's in peoples best interest to vote on issues that are meaningful to them or the group of people they share views with. groups coalescing together and determing what is important to them, even if there are only 7 of them, is the very nature of politics. nothing is going to result in me casting 5 or 10 votes: I only vote once, and my friends, who share similar views on the issues that are important to us as a political group, will vote one time each.
That you would draw a distinction between me or a party official motivating people to vote in a particular way is very strange to me. It seems to me that I would know the needs and issues within my circle of friends better than a party official. I must say that I find your notion of representative politics very strange if you think that people should be tested whether they know enough of some outsider's opinions and views rather than if their information is formed within the circle of people they spend time with every day of their lives.
People will make an informed decision based on what is important to them--not what you (or anyone) else thinks should be important and subsequently placed on a test. My father-in-law only needs to know that his candidate doesn't want to allow abortion--he doesn't need to know what anyone else thinks about it in order to make an 'informed' decision. That's my point.