posted 11-02-2004 04:29 AM                       

quote: Mike Heenan

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Seeing as how the last election turned out with the popular vote (and has happened in the past if I recall correctly), do our votes really count? Hopefully they do away with the electoral college sometime, and then eventually peoples votes will actually make a difference.

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See here's the problem. The way we vote for president, in fact much of our governmental system is based on the English form of parlimentary government. Probably because WE CAME FROM THERE!!!

Popular Vote equates Mob Rule, not democracy. The last time this was tried in this country was pre-constitution. A failed "experiment" known as the Articles of Confederation, nearly brought this great land to its knees.

The Constitution was written to prevent mob rule. A "REPUBLIC" of free democratic states was created to actually "PREVENT" large metropolitian areas from dictating policy to the rest of the country. Each state would be free and totally democratic, and would be able to write it's own laws based upon a set of rights believed to be god given and necessary for humanity.

However, these free democracies would need to be tempered and prevented from becoming so powerful individually. Our republic is designed to do just that. One house of represetatives ordered by population and one house of senators ordered by states in equal number, each can cancel each other out, giving full power and authority to each state.

And then you add a president with authority to override if necessary, and to command armies at thier behest. The president, equivalent to Englands Prime Minister, is chosen not by a vote of the people, but rather by a vote of Electors. Each state chooses electors based upon thier own chosen method of choosing. The electors cast the votes for the president and then is chosen.

This is known as the Electoral College. We have NEVER chosen a president by popular vote since the inception of our constitution. To remove the Electoral College from it is to decimate it by a large percentage. We might as well do away with the bill of rights, the right for women to vote, the elimination of slavery, the formation of our governmental system, all of it.

The electoral college is a part of who we are. To say our vote doesn't count because your vote did not go for the winner is to declare defeatism. Just pack your bags and give up if that is the thought process. Imagine in another state where you guy wins the electors all the time, and the others in that state who voted for the other guy you hate, will they feel the same way?

Anytime your vote does not go for the winner does not mean it did not count. It just means that you must be vigilant and keep voting. Get others to vote as well. Educate people you know on issues important to you without insulting them or insisting they are stupid. Let people know you care about what is happening and get them to vote too.

We can never lose the electoral system. It would great a mob rule society that would be the first step towards destroying our great constitution that has held our system of government together longer than most have ever existed. If we toss it by the way side, we will lose our country, and our great experiment will truly be dead.

And so ends today's lesson in constitutional law. Stay tuned next week when batman teaches the joker about cattle prods up the ass.

Ciao

Dave

posted 11-02-2004 04:53 AM                    

quote: Dave Williams

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See here's the problem. The way we vote for president, in fact much of our governmental system is based on the English form of parlimentary government.

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posted 11-02-2004 05:53 AM                       

quote: Michael Schaffer

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And while you're at it, could you please also explain why a President in the US can only do 2 terms? Didn't Roosevelt do 3?

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quote:

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Section 1
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

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quote:

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Background
This amendment, while limiting a President to two elected terms, theoretically does allow a President to serve up to ten years in office. If a Vice President takes over the office of President and serves less than two years as President, he may still be re-elected twice and serve eight more years in office.

This amendment was added after Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first president to serve more than two terms; he ultimately was elected to office four times and died in his fourth term. Many felt this was in violation of a two term only ideal promoted by the first President, George Washington, and widely respected ever since. The amendment codified the previously held tradition.

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posted 11-02-2004 06:51 AM                 

quote: Stephen Furley

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What determines how many votes each state has in the electoral college.

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quote:

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Each State is allocated a number of Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives (which may change each decade according to the size of each State's population as determined in the Census).

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