are you kidding us? surely you know what "sheeple" means...people who behave like a flock of sheep? timid, afraid easy to push around...right? Also there is the Sheep and the Sheep dog type personality. A leader of people who knows how and will defend the flock are said to be "sheep dogs"...the others are "sheeple"

@iThink sheeple are the mindless flock that just go with the flow, regardless of outcome. In other words, vote for me and I'll tax the crap out of you. Sheeple, Okay.

I have always wondered about the mantra, universal voting is the sign of a Democracy. When the Soviet's made it mandatory to vote, did that make them even more Democratic? As a Constitutional Republic, we tried to have responsible people vote, like the owners of property. Since we could make owning a car cover the ownership rule, could we go back to that? What other way could we have responsible voting?

@Machiavelliwar The only qualifier that I think makes sense is whether you paid net taxes.
If you're not chipping in for the pizza, then you don't get to pick the toppings... just enjoy your free pizza

@rway As some of our poorest, are given at the Fed and State level, would you have them send in 1 cent to be among the "net" tax payers? or is the tax they pay on goods bought, enough? Yeah, " skin in the game..."

@Machiavelliwar
Federal income tax return, for federal elections.
State income tax return, for State elections in states that have income tax.
Same with local taxes.
At each level, you'd have to figure in a base amount to account for "other" taxes.

But, we would have to agree on the principle first, before any discussion over how to implement it would matter anyway.
Incidentally, this would also be a great incentive to simplify the tax structure (e.g., H.R. 25 FairTax)