Tim, You don't have it quite right. Heinlein had it so that those who did a period of Federal service had the right to vote. It was not necessarily military service, but the criteria was that you had to serve a minimal amount of time doing some task for the government. It could be serving in the military or it could be as a minor bureaucrat or sweeping up after the elephants on the parade ground. The critial factor was the willingness to serve.
So if this were applied to the US, all those who served in the military, all the federal bureaucrats, and anyone who served with Americorps or the Peace Corps would be citizens. Not sure about how the different state services would fit into this however. Think of the unintended consequences. Are you sure you want that many left wing bureaucrats voting in elections? larry At 11:59 AM 4/2/2003, you wrote: >I would really like to see >something like in Star Ship Troopers (the book) where you have citizens and >you have civilians. Civilians have all the rights and responsibilities, all >the protections under the laws that a citizen does, except the right to >vote. The only people that have the right to vote are those that choose to >serve in the armed forces. I know this is going to sound really extreme to >a lot of people, but I figure hey put up or shut up. If you not willing to >lay it ALL on the line then you shouldn't get to participate in the process. >I mean if you look at it, most of the time we have record LOW voter turn out >anyway. What like 30% and less now right? Well then those people that feel >strongly about it, those that want to be part of the process, they have to >give up something in order to get in. Larry C. Lyons ColdFusion/Web Developer Certified Advanced ColdFusion 5 Developer EBStor.com 8420 Quarry Road Manassas, Virginia 20110-5326 Web: http://www.ebstor.com Chaos, panic, and disorder - my work here is done. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89 70.5
