A group of foreign observers (including several people from tin-pot semi-democracies) has come to the United States to lecture us on democracy. They know how we can improve our election process.
My favorite criticism of theirs is that we disenfranchise felons, a topic I discussed recently.
A Reuters dispatch describes their position in a delightfully poorly phrased way:
The delegation condemned the disenfranchisement of an estimated 4.7 million ex-felons which it said fell short of international standards.So international standards call for even more disenfranchisement of felons? Nah, that's not what they meant. They meant that under international standards felons should be allowed to vote. Why not? So many international leaders are corrupt themselves.
(For the curious, here's the list of countries from which the observers came: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Ghana, India, Ireland, Mexico, Nicaragua, Phillipines, South Africa, Thailand, Wales, Zambia.)
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