Again with the lectures and oh well, I see folks talking about stuff like they know,
Well, boys and girls, it's that time again, another day in the lecture series entitled "What you should know in order to be an American citizen."
I'm BigMike and welcome to my Ted Talk.
First, I have to say, I am just absolutely blown away as I read social media and the news and commentary not only on the Internet but on physical newspapers and other sources. I am stunned at how many people really don't understand how our country was designed to operate but also have not the first clue how to participate in it. They do not vote and do not know how to vote. One guy said to me "If I register to vote, the next thing you know they will be calling me for jury duty." In addition, it is overwhelming at the sheer number of people that express the sentiment that they do not care what goes on around them, but they also have no desire to learn it either. Another man told me "I am a busy man with a life to live and a family to raise who has time for all the voting shit." To live life in this country and never want to participate or experience how it works is to me, just depressing.
I cannot understand how anyone can think like that. It is almost easier to understand how people can want to withdraw from society altogether than to be able to wrap your brain around the thought that there are people who want to live here and just want the government to leave them alone in every other aspect of their lives.
Elementally there are certain things I think that every citizen should know. Really, I think there are things that every citizen should be required to do, and I am not sure how you would go about ensuring that it happens. It is amazing to me that immigrants have to be tested to achieve naturalized citizen status and people that were born here cannot even tell you where most of the states are. Jay Leno on the Tonight Show used to have a segment on that he called "Jay-Walking", where he would take a microphone and a camera into the streets of downtown LA and just ask people questions, to see if they could answer basic questions that everybody should know. One of the things he would do is walk around near a college campus and ask college students to identify states on a big US map. Almost everybody could identify their home state, almost none of them could identify the Eastern seaboard states. Usually close to zero could tell him how laws were created, or how our militaries were structured. Until he got to immigrant communities, they could almost tell him everything he wanted to know. People who wanted to be Americans so bad would study everything they could find on the subject in order to prepare for the tests.
People that lived here could care less and would walk away. It's the same way today and it is stunning.
One of the most misunderstood mechanisms of our election system for example is the Electoral College system. Most people know that it exists in some form or another but almost NOBODY can tell you what the purpose of it is or how it operates or why. Students of history may be able to reason out a few details however, Joe Average American doesn't have a friggin clue and to me, that is one amazing and terrifying statistic at the same time.
Almost no one can tell you how a vote they cast in a Presidential election in November translates into the votes of their electors in their states December. Many people think that the name of the system designates a place or a group of buildings and it has nothing to do with that at all. The only reason the term "College" is even used in the name at all is that it was a term that was used long ago to describe a gathering of representatives of the people that were ordained to represent their interests in a collegial way, that is peacefully and with dignity. It never was intended to describe a building or a location.
The number of electors assigned to each state is equal to the number of senators plus the number of members of the house of representatives in the US Congress. In this manner, smaller states with smaller populations have more power than their population may suggest but not as much as bigger more populous states do.
The electoral college was created by a set of so-called uneasy compromises at the end of the constitutional convention in 1787. The framers could not decide whether the choice of a president should be made by Congress or by the States. They also could not decide whether all states should have an equal voice (or power) in the selection or if more populous states should have more of a say in the overall outcome or process. Also, there wasn't agreement as to whether the choice of a state should be made by local elites or by popular votes cast. In the end, the declared "Committee on Unfinished Parts" created a unique structure that was ultimately approved, called the electoral college.
State legislatures could use their discretion to determine how to choose electors and some states just appointed electors until around the mid-1800s. In most states, the legislature gives the winning party the duty of choosing their electors and most states have a "winner takes all" process, although some states allow for a proportioned choice of electors based on the popular vote totals. Most electors are typically members of their respective parties and are pledged to vote for their party's choice for President. These are called "Faithful electors", that are electors that are bound to vote for their party's choice. Some states do not absolutely require this to be and those electors are called "Faithless Electors", and they are not bound by anything ut tradition to vote for their party's choices. As you can imagine, neither party is thrilled with this kind of elector. The political party likes to know what the outcome is going to be with certainty when the electors meet to cast their ballots in December.
This month, the US Supreme court will issue a ruling on the independent powers of the electoral college. This ruling should finally clear up the meaning of and determine the use of the college in the future. We'll have to wait and see what happens in the future to what impact it has on future elections.
There is a movement underfoot in America, funded by the democrats, that wants to eliminate the Electoral college. It is my opinion that this effort will fail as it will require the passage of a Constitutional amendment to remove this process from American politics and I do not think there is enough political will to make it happen. Also, as most people who are in favor of this, are poorly educated on the way the process works, they have a tough time explaining it other than expressing a general dislike for it, they cannot make a strong enough case to make it happen. It's hard to explain something this complicated to people who don't want to hear the information in the first place.
The popular sentiment is that because of the electoral college system, we have had presidents elected to office who received fewer votes than the person who lost the election. Based upon the aggregate popular vote totals this is a persuasive argument, however it is not how our election system works and is not how it has ever worked and is nothing new really. People have called the Electoral system anti-democratic because of this. In two of the past five elections have been decided by this system and not by popular vote totals. For example, both G.W. Bush and Donald Trump have gone on to become president although they lost the aggregate popular vote totals.
So what would happen if we eliminated the Electoral College system? Well, one thing that would immediately happen is that the saying "one person- one vote", would take on more significance than it ever has. In practice, the system in place now requires a majority of the electoral votes cast to be elected. The majority at this time is 270 votes, which is one more than 50% of the total of 538 Electors. The # of electors varies by state, for example while Alabama has 9, Massachusetts has 11 and Vermont only has 9.
.
The problem created by removing the system is that smaller less populous states have will have much less influence in the outcome and the larger your population the bigger your influence. That seems like a good idea maybe until you consider that in some states larger cities can be more than 65% of a state's population and theoretically you could win an election by winning big cities and ignoring rural America altogether. The other side of that argument is that it is exactly what Barack Obama did in 2008 so it didn't make any difference to begin with, however, his x-factor was minority voters as well as everyone else so it is difficult to extrapolate that election using that argument.
The bottom line is the system worked as intended and because of the system doing its job and attempting to represent the nation, Barack Obama won and Hilary Clinton lost. Although the popular vote was huge for Hilary in California, the electoral college diminished the effect of the popular vote by reducing it to the number of electors controlled by the state. That made every other state count more equally and that is what it is designed to do. Without the college, you could control 10-12 major cities more or less without caring much about the vote anywhere else, win the election and the will of 35 or so states would be negated. This protects the votes of small towns and rural America.
That is why we need the electoral college no matter what your political affiliation is.
- Comedian-actor D.L. Hughley collapsed onstage in Nashville TN the other night and has now tested positive for COVID-19
- A federal judge has denied the Trump administration's request to block publication of John Bolton's book. Saying "the cat was out of the bag, the judge opined there was no way to undo what was already done.
They are still going to try to take away any profits he makes from the sale of the book, however. - A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the subject who allegedly burned Wendy's restaurant where Rashard Brooks was shot by police.
A white, blonde-haired woman is being sought. - Sick outs continue on the 5th day in Atlanta as cops refuse to report for duty because of how stupid the politicians are.
No word on a resolution. - Several bags of human remains have washed ashore in Seattle WA on the shoreline. At least two bags were recovered. No word on sex or identities or how many bodies.
Probably a coincidence there is civil unrest there too.
Yeah, that's it, a coincidence.
BigMike
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome (Keep it clean and I will publish it.) I fully support the 1st and 2nd amendments. Nasty comments and SPAM are deleted.