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The whole point of democracy is that the rubes and idiots do have a vote, because they're still our fellow citizens (even if we don't like the idea). I support the disenfranchisement of felons, but by the God who made me, I'd change that to giving guys still in jail for selling meth to six year olds not alone the vote, but five votes sooner than go to 'let's drop the pretence and just rule by oligarchy'.
We take away the vote from felons because, by breaking the laws of society and causing harm to their fellow-citizens, they have deprived themselves of the right to be part of the polis. Now you want to take away the right to vote from citizens merely for not being as smart as you are? To give up the governance to an elite?
G.K. Chesterton has an essay about choosing juries, and while he pokes some mild fun at the process, he comes down in the end of the side of yes, the ordinary man-in-the-street:
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