“Everything Not Forbidden Is Compulsory”

                                                T.H. White

“It would be transformative if everybody voted,” told Mr. Obama to a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, this week. So does that means that we are going to need more IRS agents?

Peggy Noonan writes in the WSJ about the strangeness of President Obama’s words. Would it mean that anyone not caring about public policy would now suddenly be deciding it? Read more here from Ms. Noonan:

The way it is now, if you aren’t interested—and you have the right not to be interested—you don’t have to vote. If you are interested, you pay attention, develop political views, and vote. Making those who don’t care about voting vote will only dilute the votes of those who are serious and have done their democratic homework.

Most of us are moved by the sight of citizens lined up at the polls on Election Day. We should urge everyone to care enough to stand in that line. But we should not harass or bother those who, with modesty and even generosity, say they are happy to leave the privilege of the ballot to those who are engaged. Mandatory voting is, so far, the worst and most mischievous political idea of the year, and deeply eccentric.