When the American Republic was founded, the first modern Democratic Republic on which the rest were modeled, only male landowners could vote. These men were mostly intelligent and well read. Politicians had to make intelligent arguments to win them over. Now every dumb fucking mouth breather gets a vote. When the voting base is incredibly stupid, the politics will be dominated by incredible stupidity and appeals to base animalistic fears rather than to man's higher intellect. You've been taught that expanding the right to vote to include every sub-80 IQ moron who's never read a book in their adult life is progress, but look objectively at where we are today and tell me that's true. I'm not arguing for a college degree as a credential to vote either, because as senator McCarthy tried to warn the country our universities have been infiltrated by Marxists and are more centers of indoctrination rather than education.