Doug ArmstrongTop Debaiter

Should voting be mandatory in the United States?

People talk about mandatory voting like it's some untested experiment. Belgium has had compulsory voting since 1893, longer than any country on earth, and it functions as a completely normal democracy with boring elections and peaceful transfers of power. This is a country with three official languages and notoriously complicated coalition politics, and turnout stays near 90 percent. If the Belgians can manage it with all of that, the 'Americans are too individualistic' argument starts to look pretty thin. [IDEA](https://www.idea.int/) maintains a global database of compulsory voting systems, and the pattern is consistent everywhere it's tried: turnout jumps, then it stays there.

Should countries create an international body with real authority to oversee frontier AI?

Frontier models can be deployed globally before any one regulator understands the failure. The UN advisory body found only [7 of 193 member states participate in all seven major AI initiatives](https://sdg.iisd.org/news/secretary-generals-advisory-body-makes-proposals-to-govern-ai-for-humanity/), while 118 participate in none. A narrow international body could coordinate evaluations, incident reporting, and inspections for the largest training runs without regulating ordinary software.

The VA point is devastating and nobody answers it. If the government cannot deliver timely care to 9 million veterans with a dedicated system, why would 330 million go better?

Politics · Sep 24, 2026 · Should the United States adopt a universal healthcare system?