tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11371805.post3641278849399025895..comments2023-10-26T17:58:00.135+09:00Comments on The Stumbling Engineer: Democraziness - TNSTAAFLChrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03461699923609505432noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11371805.post-21306316395414162622011-08-26T17:10:40.333+09:002011-08-26T17:10:40.333+09:00Like you, I am no expert on Korean politics, so th...Like you, I am no expert on Korean politics, so there is a big caveat in what I say here; however, I'm not sure that the argument used in favor of free lunch for all was mainly to avoid embarrassment for the poor--my impression back when it was being passed by the new council, majority "liberal" (in scare quotes because it has a unique meaning in Korea), was to let families keep that money to use to enhance their children's education in other ways. <br /><br />I am not in favor of the free lunches, and think that money should go into SMOE for use to improve English teacher salaries.<br /><br />Oh See-hoon tearfully promised to resign if the referendum failed to turn out 33% of voters. Those who discouraged voting were possibly less interested in the referendum than in seeing Oh fail and give up his post.<br /><br />Since the referendum to end free lunches would fail if less than 33% voted, most of the people who wanted it to fail figured that not voting was better than voting to continue the program. Two birds with one stone.<br /><br />"Encouraging" people not to vote may seem odd, but it is pretty common activity. In America, by tradition, Democrats want more voters in the polls, so much so that in some districts even people who have been dead for two or three election cycles still cast ballots.<br /><br />Republicans traditionally want to suppress voter numbers, since high turnout by "regular folks" has always been bad for them.<br /><br />If you remember the ACORN flap about registering ineligible voters, you probably don't recall, because it was virtually never mentioned in the media, that not a single one of those illegal voters (like Popeye and Charlie Brown) ever attempted to cast a vote--ACORN paid some canvassers by the card, not by the final tally of legally registered voters. But the flap, combined with the bogus video of the tax advice for hookers (the same advice given by H&R Block, BTW), took ACORN out of the business of empowering the disenfranchised but nonetheless legal to vote.<br /><br />Which was the point, after all. For more on voter suppression, here's the non-partisan Brennan Institute: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/voter_suppression_incidents/ .Tuttlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06492955225793619768noreply@blogger.com