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December 30, 2000 Are you as dumbfounded as I am about the last several months of war on the political landscape? Its an amazing process which I have to say stood the test of time perfectly. I find it amazing that the structure put into place 200 years ago still works amazingly well!!! It wasn't at all a constitutional crisis we just lived thru, but a victory for the rule of law! The constitution was written exactly because situations like this could come up! Not that the founders envisioned quite what happened!! No one could ever dream up anything like Al Gore in 1790, but they put into place a series of steps to resolve differences that worked exactly as planned. OK, if you are an Al Gore supporter, you might not think it worked quite "As planned", but at the same time... what happened in the Presidential election Y2K was a lesson we should not forget! Here are the lessons, and below them is my reasoning as to why I think what I think! 1) We Live in a
REPUBLIC, not a DEMOCRACY.. The first lesson is about as big a "no brainer" as there can be. has anyone out there taken US History or Civics class?? If one more moron gets on one of the news channels and drones on and on about "how in a democracy, we should never allow what has happened to be condoned" ..I swear I will throw a brick at my TV!!! I wonder how many people even understand the difference between a Republic and a Democracy?? To be short and sweet, in a Democracy, the people vote directly for every and all government policy. In a Republic, we vote for legislators and electors, who we give the responsibility to of making sure our wishes are passed on to the Federal Government. In other words, the entire country does not vote on a spending bill. Congress does..and the Congressmen and women are voted into office by the people. The same exact principle applies to the electors in the electoral college. We vote for electors, and electors vote for the president. The reason this is a good thing, and not a bad thing can be seen in Lesson 2!!! Lesson 2 is somewhat more complex, but a simple look at the graphic images below tell the tale very well. Lets use the west coast as an example. The hotlinks in the
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In the top map, we see that Al Gore won Washington, Oregon and California, for a total of 72 electoral votes. Keep in mind here that W got ZERO. Now look at the map below, and you will see that the great majority of communities in all 3 states were for W. It was only the urban centers which in effect were Gore supporters. While I certainly understand the principle of "majority rules", the reason the college exists is so the minority does not get trampled by that very same majority. If the electoral college were to be replaced by popular vote in the next election, all a Presidential candidate would have to do is campaign on urban issues on the West Coast, Mississippi valley and Chicago, and the East Coast...and ignore the other 90% of the country. There would be no concern for 80% of California, 75% of Illinois, 70% of Minnesota, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, Montana, Kansas, Rhode Island or almost all of the other states. The US would become "flyby country" for the urban crusaders of the world. Does this discredit the issues of the urban US? No! Not by any means! However it is downright scary when you look at the lower map and realize just how polarized the country REALLY is. The electoral college is a way to create unity in the land, not disjointedness!! The problem is NOT the electoral college, but that very few people understand the way our country works, and therefore do not appreciate why it is such a great idea! We have become a nation of "me" only people, and that brings us to Lesson 3! What a bunch of whiners we have become!!! I just don't get it. When Jimmy Carter was elected President, just about everyone capable of breathing knew what an idiot he was, but we all rallied around the President because THAT'S WHAT WE DO! Now that the Clinton era has finally come to its end, there are people out there who will stop short of nothing to see to it that the agenda of "me" does not come to an end. Its so sad to watch. People like Jesse Jackson who I believe is an incredibly shrewd and intelligent person.. looking like a complete idiot whining like a 6 year old boy. The guy in Florida who decided at 9PM, AFTER realizing his guy was losing the election, that he voted incorrectly in Palm beach county was such an idiot. If voting was SO important to him, and he felt he made a mistake when he voted, he should have requested a new ballot right there at the polling place. All I hear about is that the lines were too long to do that.. well TOO BAD. If it wasn't important enough to do it right the first time, then don't cry sour grapes when it comes back to haunt you! As far as the butterfly ballot is concerned, we have used them in Chicago for YEARS, and there has never ever been a problem. Geesh. There are so many cases of people who just cant seem to understand they are responsible for their actions, and only they can correct any wrong which might have befallen them. I hope your candidate won the election, but if not... be patient and your time will come. Both parties win and both parties lose. Its the nature of the beast. Just remember the words of John F Kennedy... "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Even after all these years, those are still very sound words. ...and that's my HOTAIR for today
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