I wasn't saying YOU per se, I am speaking of exactly what you say, "It is a false, overused "talking point" in itself. This makes my point exactly. However, what do we hear as a drumbeat consistently and constantly from certain sectors of the political spectrum - huh? Now, to talk about our "broken", federally mandated, educational system, that is a whole other topic. We can discuss that in another thread for sure. The fact remains, for the most part, our electorate is "ignorant" of the substance of most issues: local, state, and federal. It is a shame. It probably takes no more than an hour and a half per week to do some digging in a point of interest to get at some substance. And what about our "inner cities"; those citadels of government sponsored poverty, entrapment economic slavery, and poorly designed "welfare" (what a misnomer!) programs that leave an average of 50% of all ethnic groups in higher poverty, single parent households, more crime, higher STD rates, and lower high school dropout rates, etc. These have been the well-intended but ill devised programs of the "progressive movement". I don't call it "progressive", but I call it regressive. It caters to the basest of our natures and caters to mediocrity and lack of personal motivation. I think we ought to offer more of help, in the form of scholarships to the poorest, to attend the school of their choosing. I believe the Department of Education needs to be reduced in size and scope and become nothing more than a clearing house for great educational ideas on the local and state level (and it would reduce bloated bureaucracy to boot). What we have from Washington is government mandated curriculums, mindsets, and control. Take NC HB 1075 which seeks to overturn the NC Opportunity Scholarships, which are overwhelmingly popular with the poorest of the intended recipients, and deny any choice and trap the poor in failing schools just to protect the "power structure" of the establishment and uncaring teachers union "bosses" (not the regular working teachers). They just want money and power. Look at New York City and the unpopular "outlawing" of charter schools by the "progressive" mayor. Much of the poor that got the advantage of the schools are "pissed off" at their city government; talk about catering to the power brokers - yikes! Let's talk about this some more in another thread. However, to recap, there IS widespread voter fraud, and we need to keep the process as clean and unfettered as we can. Many, not all, of our ancestors had a personal "moral" code which kept them from such fraud as a general rule (we can always find the exceptions and try to make them the rule as is quite common in today's culture).