Comic Strips

What that actually looked like:

If voting needed an exam, they would use that exam to stop certain demographics from voting. And no, I'm not talking about the ignorant.

It is 100% used as a weapon to disenfranchise voters.

I do however believe that it should be used on CANDIDATES.

Ironically illiterate take

Fuck no. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test

Between the 1850s and 1960s, literacy tests were used as an effective tool for disenfranchising African Americans in the Southern United States. Literacy tests were typically administered by white clerks who could pass or fail a person at their discretion based on race. Illiterate whites were often permitted to vote without taking these literacy tests because of grandfather clauses written into legislation.

Who determines the questions and answers? Now they are the ones determining who can vote and thus the people in control.

Sure. Disenfranchise most people. That's a suitable hack to a
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stable, legitimate, and responsive government.

Even China would have more political legitimacy than such a system. It would collapse almost immediately.

If you ever want a good example of functionalist ideas leading to absolutely uncritical nonsense, here it is.

This is a bad idea. You would just be creating another layer of gerrymandering.

Nah, the exams wouldn't be mandatory for everyone. You have a degree? Exempt. You graduated from one of the "certified" high schools (the ones in white neighborhoods but we don't call it that wink wink)? Exempt. Passed NRA shooting license exam? Exempt.

They used to do that in the US during the Jim Crow era. It went predictably.

Keep trying, Jay. One day you'll make a funny comic.

The exam:

Q. What is the secret password? A. Make America Great Again

the main function of the contemporary media: to convey the message that even if you’re clever enough to have figured out that it’s all a cynical power game, the rest of America is a ridiculous pack of sheep.

This is the trap.

-David Graeber, The Democracy Project

Brazil had something like that in the early republic days, only literate people could vote. Needless to say, only the robber baron elites kept getting elected, also thanks to the significant amount of fraud that happened. "The election is won during the counting"

And the approved voters just happened to be from the 50 people who controlled the testing.

It's not working. We have relatively equal education in Germany, and we have plenty of intelligent, educated people voting far right.

If I recall correctly, Aristotle proposed something like only the educated being able to vote. I think if everyone was guaranteed free access to both a high school and college education, along with all food and living costs covered for anyone studying, then I could see having at least any associates level degree being an okay barrier of entry to voting.

However, such a thing would need to be protected by some unremovable barriers. For instance, education would need to continue receiving appropriate funding, food and other living costs such as renting a room would need to be covered even as the cost for these things change. People with disabilities would need to receive proper accommodations.

A caveat I’ll add is that there would need to be more community colleges built and much more funding for pre-K thru 12th grade as well.

The founding fathers basically solved this issue through the electoral college, you’re not supposed to be voting for the president, you’re supposed to be voting for the people who will elect the president. But that’s all gone to shit, proving Hamilton’s warnings about populism extremely prescient.