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Monday, March 31, 2008
Will they pay taxes, too?
Non-Americans should be allowed to vote in the U.S. presidential election. Or so says Damian Lanigan, a blogger for London’s Telegraph newspaper
He said that the people of Afghanistan, Israel, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and any number of other places have much more at stake in the upcoming election than do U.S. residents.
Lanigan said there are a number of reasons for this. “Firstly, whereas the president has severely limited ability to make progress in domestic policy, he is relatively untrammeled when it comes to affairs abroad. George W. Bush couldn’t get close to reforming Social Security, for instance, despite a Republican congress. No president has much influence over the course of the economy. In contrast, as commander-in-chief of the military the president has enormous power overseas. Who would have thought it would be easier to invade Iraq than to get Harriet Miers on to the Supreme Court?”
So how should the foreign vote be represented? Lanigan suggested: “What about an Internet-based vote of 10 million people from all the countries of the world with as many electoral votes, as, say Michigan?”
Now how’s that for a controversial idea?
