Couldn't agree with you more Robin. We should have compulsory voting, but the American cult of individualism likely won't allow that to happen. You should see the reactions of the majority Americans who are told their kids have to wear uniforms to school!

It isn't just women who have struggled so hard to gain suffrage, but African Americans and Native Americans too. Yet, it is those very groups who are most likely in the "don't vote" column. Compulsory voting might not work, because many people would be able to afford to pay the fines to get out of voting, which means it would be poor people who would be forced to vote.

Which would be brilliant, because Republicans and Democrats who are wealthy enough would pay their fines, and stop voting and distorting and corrupting the process! Which is why the two parties won't introduce that bill, or a proportional representation bill! Because the end result would be they won't have all the power anymore. They won't do it. This is something the citizens of the US MUST do for themselves, or surrender the country to the oligarchy. That's the point we are at.

We don't need an anti-globalization, anti-war movement in the US now. We need a progressive movement agitating for a constitutional amendment to change the electoral process, and to put into the constitution instructions on the way private monies for elections can be raised and distributed to candidates. IE, to circumvent the duopolist election INDUSTRY which has grown in the last half century to become a VERY Big Business.