Seemingly as advance guard for the upcoming presidential primaries one familiar specter has again reared its ugly-- and unconstitutional --head: Abolition of the Electoral College. Hillary publicly mused about abolition just after the 2004 election, as did several other politicians and talking heads immediately after the 2000 elections, both after Democratic losses. The latest cry for 'reform' comes from Hawaii.
Proponents say going to the 'Popular Vote' would "enfranchise" millions of voters; and while this may be true... MAY be true... what it would certainly do is DIS-enfranchise millions of others. The political equivalent of steeling from one segment of society to give to another; a redistribution of political capital, but the only ones who would benefit are the presidential candidates.
Right now candidates have to visit every state in the union to ask for our vote. This is an expensive endeavor, which is why candidates have to be able to raise huge sums of money to compete in the biggest political race in the world. Right now, every vote in even the poorest state counts; races can be decided by any state however large, small, rich or poor. But take away the electoral college and all that changes.
Candidates will then only have to visit major metropolitan areas. Iowa will cease to play a pivotal role in the primaries. Iowa may in fact cease to see candidates traipsing across their landscape hoping to impress genuine middle Americans. Rural counties will cease to play any significant role in the election of our President, especially when you consider that major cites overwhelmingly vote Liberal/Democrat. What hope then for a fair, honest choice between political ideologies? Democrats and Liberals know this, and so like the idea of abolishing the Electoral College.
In the last election Ohio was solidly Republican until the the major cities began posting their returns, and the gap between Democratic and Republican votes began to rapidly close. What will happen when the Electoral College is abolished? Rural Americans may as well stay home on election day for all their votes will count for anything; the metropolitan areas will always out vote the rural areas.
When the Electoral College is done away with New England, the West Coast, and the major cities in between will choose this nation's Presidents. By seeking to enfranchise one segment of society, Liberals and Democrats seek to DIS-enfranchise another.
But leave it to our founding fathers to wisely provide a solution to the problems inherent in a Popular Vote. It's called 'The Electoral College' and embodied within this system of election is a means of 'checks and balances'-- seemingly a common theme among the framers of our Constitution. Each state is awarded a number of votes based on population (which is why census' are so important, and mandated every ten years) which also redistributes the number of Representatives each state gets, assuming the change in population is large enough in opposite proportion to another state's change in population. Our present system allows everyone the opportunity to play an important role in the election of the President of the United States.
In 2000, Florida played a pivotal role; not because of the butterfly ballot used in some Florida counties, or because of Democratic efforts-- largely successful --to disenfranchise tens of thousands of Military absentee ballots (They're second-class citizens anyway, you know?). No, the Florida vote was important for a number of reasons, not the least of which was Gore's inability to win his own state. Differing time zones within Florida also played a role in voter turnout.
It's a numbers game, plain or simple. It's all about who wins which state and how many of those are states with larger 'Electoral' counts. In this manner, even the smallest, seemingly insignificant (at least in the minds of those who do not live in said...) states, can for one evening have the entire nations attention riveted upon them; a chance to show the nation that they are indeed a vital member of the United States of America. But take away the Electoral College and these same states may as well sit down and shut up for all the voice they will have in the halls of Congress.
Furthermore, it is quite conceivable that the divide which currently exists in the House and Senate between powerful Representatives and Senators from larger more affluent states and their not-so-powerful, less-affluent partners from the rest of America may only widen. What then would be the point in running for a Senate seat, say, in Mississippi if Senators in states like New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nevada and California can with ease marginalize their presence by simple virtue of the fact that their state's popular vote counts for far more than puny Mississippi's and much of the rest of red-state America?
Realistically, the chance of this nation doing away with the Electoral College is all but non-existent only as long as the citizens of 18 states have sense enough to see the Electoral College as the fairest of the two systems. But with the Left controlling education in this country, how long-- realistically --before the dumb-downed, unwashed-brainwashed masses come to believe a popular vote is the fairest of the two?
That is the day America will cease to be America. The great experiment that is this world's ONLY genuinely successful Constitutional Republic will roll over and die. We will usher in something new, something slouching, something... altogether indistinguishable from the rest of the world's nations. We will, in short order, become quite irrelevant, and the very beast blue-America routinely paints this nation... Totalitarian. Or on its way to becoming.
The problem is - the current system is problematic, too. I think it would behoove our Republic to give some thought to our system as it exists.
I don't think we need to paint things quite so direly as you do: I don't think that if we, the people, wanted to do away with the electoral college, that we'd be on our way to totalitarianism. That's a bit sensational, don't you think?
Another issue along the same lines: The two party system. I'm not an especially big fan of either party. I'm more of a Green Party kind of guy.
But the way our system is set up, we're sort of locked into a two party system that disenfranchises those of us who don't fit in with either of the dominant parties (Libertarians, Greens, etc).
To my way of thinking - THAT is an even greater problem than our electoral college question.
The states, as states, have a constitutional voice in our system of government.
No longer equal to the federal government, not since the Late Unpleasantness. But they are more than vestiges; the United States is a republic of 50 republics, albeit, and thank God, much weaker than they were in 1789.
As usual, your ranting about "the Left" is out of place and gratutitous.
But mark the date: I unequivocally agree that the Electoral College should stay put.
"Minorities generally vote Democratic, because so many of them don't pay attention to what is really going on"
You don't have many minority friends, do you, Mark? I can't imagine that to be the case when you apparently have such a low opinion of those "stupid minorities."
Saying that most black people (most gay people, most Jews, etc) are too stupid to know what's going on is an elitist, racist remark.
It'd be like me saying "All those people out there in the Midwest got poop in their skulls instead of brains" - it just isn't true and it would be offensive and elitist to say so.
Mark, I'm sure you're a good guy who isn't actually elitist or racist, so I'd ask that you reconsider your horrifying remark.
I see nothing "horrifying" in what he said. Talk about hyperbole.
If someone were to use the above, would it be intended to denigrate Republicans' intelligence?
Yes.
I'm sure that Mark didn't mean it that way, but I'm telling you that everytime conservatives use that sort of language, it validates in the mind of most minorities exactly why they don't vote Republican - because Republicans think of them as stupid, lazy and/or immoral.
You want to win more minorities over to the republican party? Quit talking to them as if they're idiotic children.
Do you have any black friends? Read them that line and ask how they take it and how they think the vast majority of minorities who "don't pay attention to what is really going on" would take it.
That you all fail to see how offensive this is is incredible to me.
Last comment.
No, I wouldn't want people MISquoting me, saying that I've said something that I did not say (and it happens all the time). So, I truly don't want to misquote Mark here (and that's why I said that I was sure he isn't as elitist and racist as that remark makes him sound).
So clarify for me, in what POSITIVE way should I have taken that statement:
"Minorities generally vote Democratic, because so many of them don't pay attention to what is really going on..."
How is that NOT a condemnation of a whole race of people? What is the secret healthy statement in there that I'm missing?
What it seems to be clearly saying to me is that
1. Minorities vote for Democrats en masse.
2. This is a bad idea because Democrats are such awful people.
3. The reason minorities do this is that they don't pay attention.
4. Rather, they are foolish enough to get their information from the "liberally biased news."
5. Or maybe it's not that they're foolish, maybe they're just dupes?
Do you see the clear implication? Either they're fools, dupes or just not paying attention. But feel free to enlighten me: HOW are minorities supposed to take these sorts of comments?
[and I will enlighten you: They will take it the way that I've suggested they'd take it - as an insult. If you're concerned about being a lily white party and would like diversity, heed my advice. Or don't.]
"What it seems to be clearly saying to me is that
1. Minorities vote for Democrats en masse.
2. This is a bad idea because Democrats are such awful people.
3. The reason minorities do this is that they don't pay attention.
4. Rather, they are foolish enough to get their information from the "liberally biased news."
5. Or maybe it's not that they're foolish, maybe they're just dupes?
"
#1 is absolutely factually true
#2 is opinion (I also think voting Democrat is a bad idea because of the Democratic Ideology)
#3 is also an opinion ( I happen to think they vote that way because it's tradition)
#4 is true, or they wouldn't vote en masse for Democrats
#5 yes, many have been duped - into thinking the Democratic party is their friend and that they are "cared for" by the liberals. But true freedom comes when you cut the ties and strike out on your own and make your own tracks, instead of living dependent on someone or something else all your life. A huge percentage of Blacks are in bondage to the welfare system, and Democrats depend on that to keep themselves in power.
Yes, Dan. I live in Louisiana. I have many black friends. In this state, we work together, we live in the same neighborhoods, and we worship together. Most are Democrats and some are closet Republicans. Most are Christians - and when you sit down with them and tell them the National Party Platform of the Democrats, they cringe - because they KNOW they shouldn't be supporting abortion, homosexual "rights", and many other anti-Christian ideals. But tradition is a hard thing for some people to give up. So is a monthly check from the government.
My more affluent Black friends are the closet Republicans.
How about one of the black folk in your church with whom you worship - ask one of them, "Is it insulting to hear someone say that the only reason blacks vote for Dems is because they don't pay attention?"