Word: altmans
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Nonsense. Altman may spend his time watching "The Gordon Eliot Show" or Connie Chung's latest deceptions, but the rest of us get more news than we can stand. Every hour on the hour nearly every radio station gives us all the latest from Washington, D.C. and Beacon Hill. And then we have the nightly news, reporting on the latest political events every evening. I swear if I have to hear any more about the Contract With America I am going to bust. Or maybe change the channel. The last thing we need is a mandatory five minutes of Newt...
...Altman thinks this means that we "are content to let others make decisions for [us]." The facts are just the opposite. Americans want to take power back from Washington so that we can make our own decisions. We are tired of the national government deciding what prayers our children may say in school, what sorts of people deserve our compassion and what means we can use to defend ourselves from criminals. Learning that there are more important things than the national government is the first step in taking back control of our lives. Altman may think this view myopic...
...Altman's other program to make Americans into hypermetropic policy wonks is compulsory voting. "A democracy shouldn't have a 'right not to vote," he argues. Furthermore, "passive" Americans who do not vote do not have the right to dispute the decisions of elected officials. This is what most Americans learn in basic high-school civic education, but it is exactly wrong. When we vote we tacitly agree to abide by the outcome of the election; when we don't vote, we make no such agreement. Personally, I do not think any Americans should lost their right to argue with...
When the political contest is between Yale College's George Bush and Yale Law School's Bill Clinton, why should we be burdened with voting? Altman's arugment assumes that elections offer us meaningful choices. Sometimes our system does, sometimes not. Voluntary voting allows us to decide whether we have been offered a meaningful choice. Compulsory voting would force Americans to choose between the lesser of two evils. This is what Boogie Down Productions' front-man calls a choice "between the mumps and the measles." Decent people do not vote for evil, and when offered a choice between a greater...
...participation or support for centralized government. Real activism is always local. It begins at home and within onself. Sure, people do not necessarily know what is best for them, but this only reminds us that people are much less likely to know what is good for others. What has Altman so mixed up is that we are taking charge of our lives without seeking to be in charge of other people's lives. To a centralist who does not realize that compulsion is the antonym of freedom, this is baffling...