Democracy According to Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak (yes, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak) thinks that…well, he’s not quite willing to say it straight out, but he thinks we should consider the possibility of taking the right to vote away from public sector workers under some circumstances. Because sometimes they’re voting on things that directly affect their lives. Unlike the rest of us, apparently. (Linking Gawker because I won’t dignify the original source with a link.)
Of course we all have a stake in one way or another in most elections, and many of us tend to vote in favor of our own interests. However, if, for example, a ballot initiative appears that might cap the benefits of a certain group of state workers, should those workers be able to vote on the matter?
He likens this to rules preventing his family and friends from competing on Wheel of Fortune. Because competing on a privately owned game show is just like having a right that in recent generations has been accorded to just about all adult citizens. In any case, Sajak is concerned that state workers might benefit from votes—or actually, as he frames it, they might vote to prevent their benefits from being cut—and that that’s a conflict of interest. So by that logic none of us should be able to vote in an election that might actually affect our lives. Who exactly is left to vote in that case? People who don’t live here?
Sajak has apparently been silent on the issue of anonymous wealthy donors and corporations pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into negative campaign advertisements. So we’ll just have to conclude that it’s only democracy he has a problem with, but he’s just fine with elections being bought.
Tags: public sector workers
“If any group of citizens is uniquely unqualified to tell someone else how to vote, it’s those of us who live in the sheltered, privileged arena of celebrityhood.”
-Pat Sajak, 11/28/07
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SHHHH DO NOT AWAKEN DEMOCRATS LET EM SLEEP INTO DEFEAT
Reply to Conservative Bob Livingston on Big Government
C LARENCE SWINNEY says:
October 15, 2010 at 11:15 am
Sorry Bob Your creation ?”Big Government” by Reagan + Bush
is not our imminent threat to Democracy.
It Is Your creation of WSA–Wall Street Of America–
Your pals created the Great Redistribution of Income and Wealth to 1% or 1.2 million ultra rich. Yes Bob! You. You. You.
Let 1% go from 20% ownership of Total Financial Wealth in 1980 to 43% in 2009.
From Ten percent of Total Income to 24% in 2009
Yes Bob, You created a Third World called Wall Street Of America formerly United States Of America.
You Bob increased spending by 80% and Debt by 170% from 1980 to 1989.
Yes! You Bob increased spending and debt each by 100% from 2000-2009
Yes! You Bob created our current Big Government. You.
Yes! You created 99,000 net new jobs in 20 years just enough to cover new entries into the work force.
Yes! It was not Clinton or Carter who in 12 years created 222,000 per month.
Yes! It was you who freed banks where large investment Gamblers could own all our bank assets for their Gambling Empire.
Yes! It was you who modernized financial empire to allow unrestricted Gambling in your new CASINO DERIVATIVE OF AMERICA
Yes! It was you Bob who in eight years in the Bush created 31,000 new jobs per month lowest since Hoover.
Yes! It was you Bob who allowed the ultra rich to rush into the Casino Derivative and leave investments in stocks which built businesses, assets, and jobs. You Bob.
Yes! You knew Bob that Casino Derivative had no assets. You knew.
Yes! You knew Bob that Casino Derivative adds no value to our economy. You knew.
Why Bob why did you push down Middle Class 120,000,000 workers who from 1980 gained nothing.
That Bob is knows as creating a Third World Population. Yes Bob you you you did it.
prove me wrong with numbers and facts not rhetoric .
clarence swinney–olduglymeanhonest mad mad mad–political historian-lifeaholics of america-burlington nc
PLEASE PUBLISH
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Who in the heck cares what Pat Sajak has to say.
Why do we give a hoot what celebs are thinking?
What was Colbert doing testifying before a congressional committee?
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Pat Sajakass? Why does anyone care what this no-account reactionary dweeb has to say?
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