I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am in the Electoral College.
This whole thing was just losing its steam. Even though Bronx kids making the Cabinet is always cause for celebration, the rest of it was starting to get me down. Concession speeches? Groan. Victory speeches? Bah, humbug. Hillary Clinton ethics investigations? They can wait.
The recounts were over. The election was certified. It was all over. Except for 538 people who had the chance to make this the most fun we've ever had, and may ever have, with politics.
And they blew it. Or at least three of them did.
It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations. -- Hamilton, Federalist 68
I've talked before about the choice between the Goofball and the Liar. (And if there isn't a nursery rhyme with that name, someone please write one.) The choice between them was no fun at all. The wackiness that ensued after that choice was fabulous, the best thing that ever happened to politics in the 20th century. But all that fun doesn't change the fact that we were truly sifting through the hype to find the lesser of two evils in this race.
George W. Bush may be presidential material someday, but he isn't yet. And Al Gore has had plenty of time to show us what he's got, and he's spent it on the phone raising money and inventing the Internet.
Our system has devolved to this point, where we stand in the booth and take a guess. Maybe either one would have proven me wrong; I hope Bush does, and I have a feeling he won't mess anything up. But one thing is clear. These men aren't Joe Citizen. They've spent their lives in the party elite. These fellows came into the primaries with the belt; someone else had to take it away from them. It's not a surprise that they didn't. The parties wouldn't have wanted it that way.
The parties polarize themselves over all sorts of crazy things, leaving us to side with the one that sounds the least crazy at the time. And if you don't fall in line, forget about being welcome. (Lemme get this straight: Tom Ridge believes in giving women the legal right to an abortion. Therefore, he is unqualified to run the Defense Department?)
The Electoral College was a creation of the Constitutional Convention designed to protect us from ourselves. This year seemed like a year that cried out for help. When we went out and picked someone bad for us, the electors were supposed to have the "discernment" to set it right.
So after sorting through all the argle-bargle and fooferaw (9F15***) of the 2000 election, it all came down to Dec. 18, at 50 different state houses. Within those walls, 538 people had a chance to do something. Only one did, and while we can't fault her reason, it wasn't the one we were looking for.
But the convention . . . have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, . . . but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office. No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors. Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias. Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it. -- Hamilton, Federalist 68
The Phantom Legislature -- one elector per representative, one elector per senator, one elector per couple-hunnerd-thousand peeved D.C.ers -- appears out of the ether to do its job, then disappears, like some high-class Lone Ranger, barely tipping its hat as it rides back out of town. It casts its vote, dissolves, and waits for the inauguration.
It's a grand tradition. It has also become a sad sham.
Being an elector is nothing more than a party political favor in the party. See Mel Martinez, who two days after voting for George Bush in Florida ends up in the Bush Cabinet at HUD. Nothing against him, and not to say there was anything shady there, but if anything proves what kind of party insiders the electors have become, that's it.
According to the Constitution, every four years we go to the polls to select electors. They're not even on the ballot anymore. And God forbid they try to do their duty and select the best person available, even if that's not the party's choice. They get threatened with misdemeanors, with fines. Sure, THAT's Constitutional.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. -- Article II, Section 1, U.S. Constitution
Of course, at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, there was no such thing as political parties. They may have been inevitable, but they were as yet just a gleam in the eyes of Hamilton and Jefferson.
But still, nowhere in the Constitution does it say anything about electors making a committment.
The position of elector was designed to be beholden to no special interest, no group. He (and later she) would go to his state capital and vote for the men (or later women) best for the position. That's it. In a perfect world, dangling chad or not, Florida's electors would have sat down in Tallahassee and voted for the person they thought best suited for the highest office in the world.
In the world of the Constitution, there is no such thing as a faithless elector. Every elector, beholden to no party, is free to make his own decision. That may be for George W. Bush or Al Gore, both of whom certainly galvanized the diehards of their parties to their side.
But that elector would also be free to select someone else. John McCain, for instance. Colin Powell (we need a Bronx president). Bill Bradley. Joe Lieberman. George Herbert Walker Bush.
Yes, in an election like this, the election would then go to the House, and yes, the House, quite partisan itself, would then vote for George Walker Bush for 43rd President of the United States, just like the electors did on Dec. 18. But the point would have been made.
... (T)he Executive should be independent for his continuance in office on all but the people themselves. He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was necessary to the duration of his official consequence. This advantage will also be secured, by making his re-election to depend on a special body of representatives, deputed by the society for the single purpose of making the important choice. -- Hamilton, Federalist 68
The electors had the ultimate chance this year to thumb their noses at "those whose favor was necessary" for Bush and Gore to be nominated, namely their parties' political machines.
None, it seemed, wanted to be branded a Faithless Elector.
Instead, the process just shows a complete lack of faith to the Constitution.
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Michael Fornabaio--mef17@oocities.com