HOPE AND CHANGE
So today is the big day. Today the electors vote for the presidency of the country. And some foolish few will either break state laws by their vote or , at the very least, break faith with the very voters who elected them to their exalted position of power.
I simply cannot understand why they even bothered to place their name for the job if they did not intend to vote for the person who garnered the votes to place them in their office. How silly to tell the state Republican office that they would vote for whomever the voters selected and then turn tail and seek to obviate that very choice.
Not only silly, but to my way of thinking, should be criminal, with criminal penalties. How about losing their voting privileges for about ten years?
And how about working to get a constitutional amendment eliminating the Electoral College. Legally. Instead of whining that the college is all wrong for the country.
But then again, I see nothing wrong with the Electoral College. It has worked for over two hundred years without a hitch, already and will serve its purpose for many more. But most Americans do not understand its purpose. And even as many do not understand that America is not a democracy, nor was it ever intended to be such.
The United States is best described as a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC. And that means that the founding fathers were too leery of democracy that they framed the Constitution to prevent any such foolishness. I cannot believe under any circumstances that the founders of our country could foresee the great imbalance of the population density in our country, from a distance of almost two hundred thirty years ago. But By George, By Sam, By Tom, By James and By James, they surely appear to have done so.
The U. S. has devolved into three countries, two heavily liberal and one heavily conservative. Those dens of liberal iniquity, with a few exceptions, are located on each coast, with the Conservatives populating the vast interior of the land.
The Democrat party toots that Clinton won the election by almost three million votes. Yeah, and Gore won by almost a million in 2000, too. But both were (will be) defeated b y the Electoral College, which relies not upon the total popular vote, but by the popular vote WITHIN THE STATES. So while those cited above DID win the overall popular vote, they did NOT win the majority of votes within the separate states.
Indeed, Clinton had a two million vote majority within the state of California, but all she won by that majority was the 55 electors that California has to offer. With smaller majorities, she also won Oregon and Washington, thereby assuring the complete liberality of the West Coast.
Similarly, New York and the New England states, with an exception, went heavily for Clinton, as did Virginia. So the East Coast was liberal also, as well as a pocket in the Midwest (Illinois).
But the rest of the country, the vast plains, the South, the Upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic (minus Virginia), and a couple other anomalies, went for the conservatives.
And the real purpose of the Electoral College was to ensure that those voters in those intra-American states would not be forced to lose their enfranchisement to the highly populated coastal regions, or to a demagogue with a huge following from some also highly populated areas (remember George Wallace?).
Each state is allocated electors based upon the total of the number of members of the House of Representatives plus the two Senators from the state. In West Virginia's case, that totals five. In California that totals fifty-five. West Virginia has a population of 1.8 million, California something like 35 million. In West Virginia, each Representative represents about 600,000 people. In California, that figure is about 660,000. Recognizing that there are some really skewed numbers when you compare California with say, Wyoming, or Alaska, but those are rare, and we must give each state recognition in any event, so that the few exceptions do not spoil the broth, so to speak.
Let the whiners whine. The fact is that the rules were known in advance, the rules will not change until an amendment is made to the Constitution, and let the intent and the sense of the Constitution prevail -- as it will.
After all, as we found out in 2009, when the Democrats proclaimed it loud and clear, WE WON! YOU LOST! GET OVER IT!
And, contrary to Mrs. Obama's plaint, I now have hope again - for ALL America and the world.
I simply cannot understand why they even bothered to place their name for the job if they did not intend to vote for the person who garnered the votes to place them in their office. How silly to tell the state Republican office that they would vote for whomever the voters selected and then turn tail and seek to obviate that very choice.
Not only silly, but to my way of thinking, should be criminal, with criminal penalties. How about losing their voting privileges for about ten years?
And how about working to get a constitutional amendment eliminating the Electoral College. Legally. Instead of whining that the college is all wrong for the country.
But then again, I see nothing wrong with the Electoral College. It has worked for over two hundred years without a hitch, already and will serve its purpose for many more. But most Americans do not understand its purpose. And even as many do not understand that America is not a democracy, nor was it ever intended to be such.
The United States is best described as a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC. And that means that the founding fathers were too leery of democracy that they framed the Constitution to prevent any such foolishness. I cannot believe under any circumstances that the founders of our country could foresee the great imbalance of the population density in our country, from a distance of almost two hundred thirty years ago. But By George, By Sam, By Tom, By James and By James, they surely appear to have done so.
The U. S. has devolved into three countries, two heavily liberal and one heavily conservative. Those dens of liberal iniquity, with a few exceptions, are located on each coast, with the Conservatives populating the vast interior of the land.
The Democrat party toots that Clinton won the election by almost three million votes. Yeah, and Gore won by almost a million in 2000, too. But both were (will be) defeated b y the Electoral College, which relies not upon the total popular vote, but by the popular vote WITHIN THE STATES. So while those cited above DID win the overall popular vote, they did NOT win the majority of votes within the separate states.
Indeed, Clinton had a two million vote majority within the state of California, but all she won by that majority was the 55 electors that California has to offer. With smaller majorities, she also won Oregon and Washington, thereby assuring the complete liberality of the West Coast.
Similarly, New York and the New England states, with an exception, went heavily for Clinton, as did Virginia. So the East Coast was liberal also, as well as a pocket in the Midwest (Illinois).
But the rest of the country, the vast plains, the South, the Upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic (minus Virginia), and a couple other anomalies, went for the conservatives.
And the real purpose of the Electoral College was to ensure that those voters in those intra-American states would not be forced to lose their enfranchisement to the highly populated coastal regions, or to a demagogue with a huge following from some also highly populated areas (remember George Wallace?).
Each state is allocated electors based upon the total of the number of members of the House of Representatives plus the two Senators from the state. In West Virginia's case, that totals five. In California that totals fifty-five. West Virginia has a population of 1.8 million, California something like 35 million. In West Virginia, each Representative represents about 600,000 people. In California, that figure is about 660,000. Recognizing that there are some really skewed numbers when you compare California with say, Wyoming, or Alaska, but those are rare, and we must give each state recognition in any event, so that the few exceptions do not spoil the broth, so to speak.
Let the whiners whine. The fact is that the rules were known in advance, the rules will not change until an amendment is made to the Constitution, and let the intent and the sense of the Constitution prevail -- as it will.
After all, as we found out in 2009, when the Democrats proclaimed it loud and clear, WE WON! YOU LOST! GET OVER IT!
And, contrary to Mrs. Obama's plaint, I now have hope again - for ALL America and the world.
posted by tanstaafl | 2:08 PM
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