Nov 07, 2012 15:38
I have heard the sentiment that it's a shame that a civil right has been put to a popular vote. And, in the abstract, I agree.
In practice, I don't think any set of laws can ever be perfect, and we've come a long way and still have a ways to go. But since we started from a system where aristocrats on horses with spears got to do whatever they liked to serfs, the fact we've gotten far enough that any of us get to vote at all is amazing (but, like I just said, no reason to stop). Maybe there's something I just don't understand, though, and thus, a poll!
(Edit: The distinction I'm trying to get at here is between a) "the old situation sucked, and therefore the fact that we had to fix it sucked inherently, but at least the fix was done in the best way possible" and b) "the old situation sucked, and therefore the fact that we had to fix it sucked inherently, and furthermore there was a better way to make the fix".)
For the purposes of this poll, I'm making the assumption that whatever "civil rights" are, any particular system of laws may or may not support them, and thus the questions are about how to alter the system of laws to more closely mirror a particular concept of "civil rights". I take the first question to imply membership in an abstract at-least-partially-disenfranchised class, whether enslaved American blacks, pre-sufferage women in the US and England, French peasants under Louis XVI, or even (to stretch about as far as it'll go) the English barons under King John. For the other questions, I assume membership in a democracy that grants the vote but not all desirable civil rights. For the last question, and the example of a civil right I don't support, the one I was thinking of is the right to sell oneself into slavery (ahem, "indentured servitude"), but I'm curious as to other people's suggestions.
Poll If your state were to newly guarantee in law a civil right, which was not previously guaranteed by law......
Thoughts?
civil rights,
democracy,
poll