Voting Non.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is shocked at the number of times he has run into voters in this great republic who have voted "for" various ballot issues without knowing the foggiest thing about the ballot issue for which they voted.

In the great Commonwealth of Virginia, we like to have bond referenda. We are quite covetous of our "AAA" bond rating in our Commonwealth and as a consequence don't put many bond issues up for a state-wide vote. But from time to time we do. And, with rare exception, those bond referenda pass. Generally by large margins.

But if you ask people what the bond referenda were for they couldn't tell you. What is worse, they will also admit to voting for the bond issue.

But this problem is not one of just bond referenda. We also, albeit infrequently, have general questions on the ballot. Should the voters authorize So-and-So to do This-and-That?

Your Maximum Leader, for one, makes it a point to educate himself about every item appearing on any ballot he is going to cast. Sometimes he makes it a point of contacting a state legislator's office and getting their take on it. Sometimes he's gone so far as to ask his state legislators why on earth they voted to put such a piece of mindless drivel on the ballot in the first place.

But on the odd chance that something sneaks by your Maximum Leader, and he doesn't feel as though he knows enough about an issue; he always votes against the measure.

Always.

Your Maximum Leader, as you can surmise, is generally opposed to the government doing "things" outside of its regular scope. If doing a "thing" is such a troubling political issue that it requires a referendum, perhaps it is better that it not be done in the first place. And in the balance he doesn't much like referenda of any sort. In many cases (except where state constitutions mandate otherwise) ballot referenda are just another way that an elected representative can shirk their duty to take decisions. (That is afterall the job description.)

So, imagine your Maximum Leader's pleasure as he continues to read about the imperiled EU "Constitution." Imperiled in France at any rate. It appears as though a slim majority of voters in France are too confused by the document. They will thus be voting against its ratification.

Your Maximum Leader hopes the EU "Constitution" fails in France. Your Maximum Leader doesn't know why, but he values French nationhood and national identity more than those fools who govern France.

(And he bets you'd have never thought to see those words appear in this space.)

For all their shortcomings in your Maximum Leader's view, he does love France for being France. And if this bastard document goes forward, the long-term prospects of there being a "France" as we know it (and love/hate it) are slim. (This goes for Germany, Italy, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, and any other EU country frankly.)

One can hope that the rural Frenchman will recsue his cosmopolitian sophisticate brothers from the rule of Brussels.

Your Maximum Leader is keeping his fingers crossed.

Carry on.