The outcome of the recent election has left me in a mood... like much of the country. No matter if the ‘mood’ is a product of feeling uplifted because Trump won or depressed for the same reason, it’s a ‘mood’. I suspect that few of us are untouched, un moved or unaware that something major has shifted, something important has happened in our country.
Why was Trump successful? If our system has elected a person with little or no qualifications for the office and a plethora of reasons why he is NOT qualified we must ask ourselves what is wrong with the system? He warned us that the system was rigged and we failed to believe him, we failed to recognize that he has been a part of the rigging of the system for so long that he knows how to use the failings of it to cloud his own failings. So, let’s look at that system.
In reading about the Electoral College and the reasons that prompted the founding fathers to institute a separation between the voting public and the final vote I was somewhat surprised to learn that historians attribute this to their mistrust of the voter. Apparently, our founding fathers had discerned that it could be too easy to sway the voter with irrelevant, false and self-serving temptations. They felt that the Electoral College would be a protection against the misuse and abuse of this newfangled, untried and unproven system of government; Democracy. Let’s remember that Democracy was a pretty radical idea at the time. Europe was an amalgamation of separate monarchies (arguably Venice might have been considered a Republic but operated as a mixed government with monarchical trends) and the founding fathers were distinctly elite. They were educated men of means whose lofty ideals of equality and giving power to the people were tempered by their belief that not everyone was as prepared as they were to choose wisely and to actually govern themselves without the aid of those more prepared by education and reason. Hence, they slipped in the Electoral College; a layer of separation which would allow men of preparation to right the wrongs of voters who were misled by ignorance, graft, collusion or corruption. But this elitist attitude meant to provide "wiser" men the option of using Democracy more correctly than the poor, unprepared masses has actually provided a means to correct itself.
Over 50% of our voters selected a candidate other than the one our Electoral College THINKS it has to vote for based on a formula created in 1787 to protect the national interests from the ignorance of the voter. It is entirely constitutional and morally correct for the Electors to base their vote on the qualifications and preparation of the candidate to hold office PARTICULARLY IF THAT CANDIDATE GARNERED MORE VOTES IN THE POPULAR VOTE. While it breaks with tradition there is no legal reason they cannot recognize the popular vote and therefore, cast their vote for the winner of the NATIONAL popular vote.(There are two exceptions...two states would require the Electors to pay a small fine if they chose to take this path.) The actual election of the President has not taken place. The Electors will cast their votes on December 19, 2016. Let’s not gather in the streets to protest Trump’s election…let’s gather in the streets to impress on the Electoral College that they should respect the will of the people of 2016, not 1787.
 |
| Alexander Hamilton believed that the Electoral College would ensure that the President would be chosen “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.” |
More Here:
Posts
