Re: elections and stuff - off topic

[Biggsk@aol.com]

Alan and Ivan wrote:

<< >and the one who had less (overall that is) votes won. Where's the logic in
 >that? Funny Americans, you have to love them. :)
 
> Thanks for the love, much appreciated :-).  It's the same logic as having a
 House of Representatives which is apportioned by population (i.e., each
 person counts equally, each State does not) PLUS a Senate in which each
 state has 2 Senators (each State counts equally, each person does not).  If
 the election were simply a popular vote, we'd have a couple high-population
 centers on the East and West Coasts, plus Texas and maybe Florida,
 outvoting the other 40 States put together.  Hence the Electoral College. >>

Ivan - don't feel bad about not understanding our system of elections - most 
Americans have no clue either!

First - the United States is not a democracy - rather, it is a Constitutional 
republic of states and people.  Our Founding Fathers warned us against being 
a mob-rule democracy (read the Federalist Papers, #10 if I correctly recall, 
for starters) in great detail, and as such set up a government where the 
people vote for those that elect the president - the electors of the 
Electoral College.  The popular vote only elects the electors, and there have 
been other times in our history where a winning president lost the popular 
vote but carried the right states.

As such, with this latest election, the voices in our country that are 
seeking to surmount the republic status we have and replace it with mob-rule 
democracy, like junior Senator elect Hillary Clinton of New York, who has 
already stated she will introduce a bill in the senate to amend the 
Constitution that will remove the Electoral College, have been howling again 
stating that the College is archaic and that the voices of the people have 
not been heard.  Horseshit basically - but these are the people that have no 
clue on how this government works!  Hint - it is NOT majority rules!

Many others over the years have tried to get the Electoral College removed, 
including statesmen FAR above Hillary Clinton's level, and they have failed.  
Somewhere near 700 attempts so far to date is the last figure I read.

The problem is, since we are also a republic of states, and those same states 
must vote by a 3/4's majority to ratify ANY amendment to the U.S. 
Constitution, there is about a snowball's chance in Hell that any attempt to 
alter the Electoral College will ever pass muster!  No small state will EVER 
vote itself out of political power and abolishing the Electoral College would 
do just that.  No candidate for president will ever go to any state other 
than New York, California, Texas, Florida and about 5 others in a future 
campaign of that passes.  So Hillary can try all she wants - it will never 
work - just like everything else she has done in her "career"!

As to the House Of Representatives, that is based on the population and it is 
the "people's house".  All tax legislation must come from there, for example, 
as well as other matters of Federal legislation.  It is being adjusted as we 
speak due to the recent Census of the United States.  I live in Ohio and 
we'll be losing a seat in the House, while other states like Georgia, for 
example, will gain two seats.  Since the number of representatives of the 
states, added to the Senators of the state, equal the number of electors in 
the Electoral College, you can see how that can change every ten years as 
population shifts.  This change also forces those that seek to be president 
to campaign all over since the population changes so much.

The Senate of the United States used to be appointed by the respective state 
legislatures, up until early in the 20th Century, when a bad Constitutional 
amendment altered that to popular vote.  The purpose of the states appointing 
them was to make sure that state power was balanced with Federal power, and 
that the latter would not get as out of hand as it is today.  Hence things 
like the appointment of Senators by the states, and the 10th Amendment which 
states that all powers not specifically given to the Federal government are 
reserved to the states or the people (liberals HATE this amendment by the way 
- along with the Second!).

The whole Constitutional structure is the finest politcal document that I 
have ever read - and I read it about once a month.  I am in absolute AWE of 
how it came together and the tremendous brain power of the men who created it 
in terms of their ideas of what types of government they did not want to have 
and what type they DID want to have.  No American politician today is worthy 
of the men that wrote this document!

It is designed so that no branch of government (executive, legislative and 
judicial) can out power the other, and that Federal power cannot overpower 
the respective states, other than the Federal supremacy clause in certain 
national issues like defense, coinage and currency and interstate commerce 
regulation.  This was the legal basis of the secession movements of some 
states from 1803 on through 1860-61 - that the respective states and people 
could withdraw their support of the Federal government as stated in our 
Declaration Of Independence. 

The Constitution was ratified by the respective states in 1789 and in 1791 
the first ten amendments called the Bill Of Rights were added to it.  To my 
knowledge, no other national constitution has a similar addition.  These 
guarantee certain rights to the people to protect them from government 
tyranny by giving them freedoms of speech and the press; assembly and redress 
of grievances; firearms - not only for protection against criminals, but for 
protection against the government; freedom of religion and from religion 
backed by government; protections against self incrimination; cruel and 
unusual punishments; being forced to quarter troops in their homes, and 
others - with the Tenth Amendment stating VERY clearly that all the powers 
not specifically given to the Federal government are reserved to the states 
or the people.

And when you read the document you will see that the Constitution is the 
supreme law of the land and that the Federal government is not supposed to do 
all that much - unlike those today who think that people are stupid and need 
the government to take care of them from cradle to grave!  At least 50 per 
cent of the current Federal government bureaucracy is un-Constitutional!!!  I 
reject wholely this form of Federal government as it is socialist and leads, 
historically, to tyranny.  Big government is the greatest threat to personal 
liberty, if you check even recent history (Hitler, Stalin, Mao - to name but 
a few)!

But the other genius of the document is how it states that the people vote 
for electors who in turn vote for the president so that the various states 
also have their say in how the Federal government is run IN ADDITION to the 
people at large.  This is a nation of people AND states - not one or the 
other.  If the states were not deemed important when this document was 
conceived, then why would the Founders have written in so much state 
protection via amendment ratification, senators and the 10th Amendment?  The 
people also have their House to carry their grievances to and, since the 
Senate is now also by popular vote, the Senate can be influenced by the 
people - often to the detriment of the states.

This nation has also seen a never ending tug of war between states (state's 
rights - which I completely support) and the Federal government (which I 
support very very little) in terms of doing things.  Several states have 
Tenth Amendment violation lawsuits pending in Federal courts as we speak over 
the overstepping of the bounds by the Federal government through 
un-Constitutional mandates.  May they win completely.

So Ivan, it is not a weird system at all, but rather one with tremendous 
thought behind it based on what the Founders were influenced by in their day 
in terms of government then and historically.  The British government was a 
great influence as was the British Constitution and the older Magna Carta.  
The ancient Greeks also served to be an influence, but for more a setting of 
those that sought not to create mob-rule democracy like ancient Greece was, 
but rather a republic where minority thoughts are protected  from 
mob/majority rule (hence the Bill Of Rights).

The system is not perfect - no government is.  But it did create a nation of 
laws and, at least until our Civil War, very limited Federal government, that 
has allowed the people to prosper like no nation in history, to go as far as 
you want so long as you harm no one else in doing so and to be who you wish 
to be.

I love it and would not change it for anything on Earth in terms of another 
government system.  In fact, I vote when I can to help roll it back to how it 
was originally conceived.  Shutting down a lot of the Federal government is a 
very good thing indeed!!!!!  So is freedom!

Greg Biggs
Libertarian Party