About 200 years ago, the founding fathers limited voting to men with property. And, for about the first 10 or so years, it was a fairly small group. At the same time, however, new landowners by the tens of thousands were being created as the new country essentially gave away land it had wrested from indigenous natives to newly landed settlers. Rightly or wrongly, that confiscated land provided voting rights to a huge number of men who could not have purchased that land in Europe even if they possessed the means to do so. In short order, even a subsistence farmer working a few acres of land cleared by hand could step up to the polling booth. Being a man of property didn’t necessarily mean the man was wealthy. It did mean he was a man of commitment and responsibility, because to work the land was a backbreaking, all-consuming task. Over the years, our government gave land away or sold it cheaply under the condition that it be worked for a minimum of 5 years before title passed to the new owner. Not a year, not a few months, but 5 years. That’s a serious commitment. From 1803 to 1891, a signficant number of men and their families tried and failed, returning to the cities in the East.

The underlying reason for a property ownership prerequisite was simple: the founding fathers were concerned that extending voting rights to everyone would quickly tip the balance in favor of those benefiting from the collection of taxes. In other words, those who fed at the public trough would outnumber and out-vote those who worked to fill that trough. It’s a sad reality that there are more poor people than there are affluent people. The facts and circumstances have been debated for centuries, but that doesn’t change anything.

Over the years, all pre-requisites for voting have been removed. Now, the only pre-requisite is to show up at the polling booth or return an absentee ballot. Some states don’t even require a photo ID or proof of citizenship. Others allow same-day registration and voting. This is absurd. It encourage ballot stuffing and other forms of voting fraud, something that Democrats have turned into an art form. If someone responsible is ever voted into the White House, one of the first measures to push through Congress would be a uniform voting standard. That means proof of citizenship and photo ID must be shown to poll workers. But another, even more critical requirement should be introduced. Anyone allowed to cast a vote in the US cannot be a dependent of the state. Otherwise, the dependents will keep voting themselves more benefits, to the detriment of all who work and pay taxes. Americans are stupendously generous. No dependents of the state will suffer or go hungry. Instead, they’ll find yet another tremendous incentive to become productive citizens and carry their own weight. Who are these dependents? You’d be surprised. It’s not the usual stereotypes, but a slice of the spectrum that includes the richest and poorest among us. Dependency isn’t necessarily an economic state. It’s a state of mind.

Obama has made no secret of his wealth distribution jihad. And, the paralells to Karl Marx just keep piling up. He has promised to right all wrongs, take from the rich and give to the poor. This, of course, has the effect of a feeding frenzy. The parasites, sensing a payday, are already rejoicing. But that celebration may be premature and probably short-lived. That’s because the masses voting for Obama’s redistribution plan aren’t the ones to benefit from it. The payoff will be enormous for trial lawyers, lobbyists, Hollywood types, and other moneyed members of the liberal elite. The average working stiff will instead get stuck with the bill, or at the very least, won’t get much in return for his/her vote.

Obama and Biden will institute a statist form of socialism that effectively closes off opportunity and upward mobility for those who haven’t already clawed their way to an elite status. They’ll do this with crippling taxes, mountains of red tape and invasive social engineering. Outside of American Idol, the doors to personal achievement and true wealth-building will be closed. In other words, America will now resemble the rest of the world. For all their class warfare demagoguery, it’s the Democrats who want to formalize and freeze class distinctions. It keeps them in power for as long as they can fool the working and middle classes into believing they are the party of the common man. That was a lie way back in FDR’s day, as much as it is today. And once Democrats control the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, they will pass laws and regulations to make sure they’ll never be voted out. Our most fundamental right will have been taken away.

This is not idle speculation. The Mackinaw Center discovered such a plot in Michigan, where Democratic legislators, lobbyists and various ‘grass roots’ groups were attempting to create legislation and policy that would have guaranteed Democrats total control of state government with no accountability and no public recourse. They could not be voted out of office. By the way, this went unreported in the state’s largest newspapers and TV stations. A few radio talk show hosts were the only ones to mention this overt abridgement of voting rights and representative government. Michigan Republicans were able to muster a creaky, tepid response that put the measure on hold. To Democrats, this was only a temporary setback. They lie in wait. One wonders how many other states have similar measures in play.