Universal suffrage a good thing?

[vulturesrow]

So I am rereading Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind and I am really thinking hard about the idea of universal suffrage, in the context of the USA of course. Why is this necessary? Does everyone really deserve a voice? Or should we restrict it to those who bother to pay attention, learn about the issues, etc? I have no hard feelings against universal suffrage at this point but sometimes I think I would be more comfortable with a more restrictive system. Again, no strong feelings against the current model, just trying to stir up some debate.