From: wernerhetzner@gmail.com   
      
   I recently sent this LTE:   
   Your December 18 editorial ‘Reforms boost democracy’ lauds legislative   
   agenda to “underscore the importance of voting” and “make it easier for   
   people to vote.”    
      
   Not so fast! In his famous book ‘Brave New World’ Aldous Huxley observes   
   about voting, “In principle, it is a great privilege. In practice, as recent   
   history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of   
   liberty.”    
   According to this quote, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of   
   government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote   
   themselves largesse from the public treasury“ suggests financial demands   
   cause terminal decline.    
      
   Yes, democracies can fail, have failed and are failing now. To “underscore   
   the importance of voting” perhaps it should be made harder instead of easier.   
   In practice isn’t democracy a sham. Many important and widely unwanted   
   impositions exist. State mandates - especially unfunded mandates - favor the   
   politically connected but cost the electorate. Sure we can vote on school   
   budgets but so what? Most of    
   the policy and spending is not controlled by those who vote.     
      
   Also, when democratically elected governments fail or can’t pay their bills   
   appointed ‘fiscal control boards’ are installed to take control. Call it   
   what it is ‘democracy control’. It’s not ‘deregulated democracy’.   
   People can still vote.    
   Laws can make voting easier. But an appointed ‘control board’ decides what   
   and how government functions.  A computer search will return a number of such   
   control boards in municipalities, school districts and public authorities.   
   Each one represents a    
   failure of democracy. A few are found at this link:   
   https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-sends-legislatur   
   -bill-establish-financial-restructuring-board-distressed-local   
      
   How can Governor Cuomo be said to ‘deregulate’ democracies while he   
   actually regulates them? If voting is so important perhaps it needs to be   
   licensed.  That is demanded of barbers who can do much less damage.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)