Don't sweat the holidays!
Give the gift of some sweet and spicy reads!
"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.
Give the gift of some sweet and spicy reads!
"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.
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TOO MANY MOVING PARTS
It's been a month and a week since Joe Biden won the Presidential election,
...a month and a week that soon-to-be ex-President Donald Trump has spent heave-ho-ing the legal system from stem to stern,
...in an effort to trip up the Electoral College and delete votes of 81,283,485 Americans.
This could theoretically have been possible as we Americans don't actually vote for our Presidents, we only think we do.
It's actually the group of Electors chosen by our candidate's political party who vote for the President. So when we the people vote, who we are in fact voting for is a group of strangers to do the voting for us. The Founding Fathers, not completely trusting the good sense of we the unenlightened people, put this system of Electors in place as a safety measure just in case Americans were ever dazzled into voting into the office of President some lying, grifting, fraudulent, corrupt, self-dealing, over-privileged, immoral, dishonest, divisive snake-oil salesman with a genius for stirring up and glorifying the basest desires and prejudices that simmer in the human soul. The Electors were supposed to overrule us in case the majority ever made such a misguided choice for the leader of our country.
At least that was the stated plan of the Founding Fathers, though they did have another reason for instituting the Electoral College - some historians say the main reason - which was to get the South on board with the whole united states concept.
Since the agrarian South at the time didn't have as great a voting population as the more urban North, the compromise of the Electoral College was made among the Founders. Every state was granted a number of Electors based on the state's total population, and the South was permitted to count each slave as three-fifths of a person. So this gave the southern slave states more representation than was equaled by the number of eligible voters.
And so it goes to this day, long after the demise of slavery, that in our country states are granted Electors based on population no matter what percentage of that population actually votes. Thus in the United States a candidate can lose the popular vote by millions but still become President by way of the Electoral College.
As it turned out in the 2020 election, Donald Trump lost both the popular vote - by millions - and the Electoral College vote. However he set in motion a scheme, backed by some powerful Republican lawmakers, to get the Democratic Electors switched out for Republican Electors. And with a little cooperation by the courts and state legislatures and maybe a little more time he theoretically could have pulled it off.
But five weeks after the election is the time appointed by law for the Electors to cast their votes for - or at least one hopes for - the candidate who won the most votes in their state.
On the December 14, 2020, each Elector faithfully cast their vote in accordance with the will of the voters in their state rather than in accordance with the will of Donald Trump, and the fear that the votes of 81,283,485 Americans would be overturned was put to rest.
Well, not quite put to rest. Along with the Electoral College, the Founders at the time thought it wise to install what they deemed one final safety measure in our election process. After the vote of the people is approved by the Electors, the vote of the Electors must be approved by Congress before the President-elect can be indisputably declared the winner o the election.
Congress will meet for this purpose on January 6, 2021, about three weeks from today and two weeks before the inauguration of the next President must, by law, take place. It takes only one Congressperson and one Senator to object to Joe Biden's confirmation to open a Congressional debate. Already allies of Donald Trump are talking about fighting Joe Biden's confirmation on the floor of Congress and dragging out the process for as long as possible. This means that after the stress of the election and the stress of worry about the Electoral College vote, Americans now have to stress over the distant but possible possibility that Donald Trump, master of dissembling, propagating disinformation, pulling rabbits out of hats, mesmerizing his adoring base, empowering his allies and bullying everyone else around him into submission, might yet pull off one more sleight-of-hand and somehow nullify the election and turn the results to his favor.
Our American election system has too many moving parts. Too many cogs that can break or malfunction, as when a candidate can lose an election by the people by millions of votes but win it by the Electoral College. To many pieces that can be bent and manipulated by a corrupt but proficient political mechanic.
This could theoretically have been possible as we Americans don't actually vote for our Presidents, we only think we do.
It's actually the group of Electors chosen by our candidate's political party who vote for the President. So when we the people vote, who we are in fact voting for is a group of strangers to do the voting for us. The Founding Fathers, not completely trusting the good sense of we the unenlightened people, put this system of Electors in place as a safety measure just in case Americans were ever dazzled into voting into the office of President some lying, grifting, fraudulent, corrupt, self-dealing, over-privileged, immoral, dishonest, divisive snake-oil salesman with a genius for stirring up and glorifying the basest desires and prejudices that simmer in the human soul. The Electors were supposed to overrule us in case the majority ever made such a misguided choice for the leader of our country.
At least that was the stated plan of the Founding Fathers, though they did have another reason for instituting the Electoral College - some historians say the main reason - which was to get the South on board with the whole united states concept.
Since the agrarian South at the time didn't have as great a voting population as the more urban North, the compromise of the Electoral College was made among the Founders. Every state was granted a number of Electors based on the state's total population, and the South was permitted to count each slave as three-fifths of a person. So this gave the southern slave states more representation than was equaled by the number of eligible voters.
And so it goes to this day, long after the demise of slavery, that in our country states are granted Electors based on population no matter what percentage of that population actually votes. Thus in the United States a candidate can lose the popular vote by millions but still become President by way of the Electoral College.
As it turned out in the 2020 election, Donald Trump lost both the popular vote - by millions - and the Electoral College vote. However he set in motion a scheme, backed by some powerful Republican lawmakers, to get the Democratic Electors switched out for Republican Electors. And with a little cooperation by the courts and state legislatures and maybe a little more time he theoretically could have pulled it off.
But five weeks after the election is the time appointed by law for the Electors to cast their votes for - or at least one hopes for - the candidate who won the most votes in their state.
On the December 14, 2020, each Elector faithfully cast their vote in accordance with the will of the voters in their state rather than in accordance with the will of Donald Trump, and the fear that the votes of 81,283,485 Americans would be overturned was put to rest.
Well, not quite put to rest. Along with the Electoral College, the Founders at the time thought it wise to install what they deemed one final safety measure in our election process. After the vote of the people is approved by the Electors, the vote of the Electors must be approved by Congress before the President-elect can be indisputably declared the winner o the election.
Congress will meet for this purpose on January 6, 2021, about three weeks from today and two weeks before the inauguration of the next President must, by law, take place. It takes only one Congressperson and one Senator to object to Joe Biden's confirmation to open a Congressional debate. Already allies of Donald Trump are talking about fighting Joe Biden's confirmation on the floor of Congress and dragging out the process for as long as possible. This means that after the stress of the election and the stress of worry about the Electoral College vote, Americans now have to stress over the distant but possible possibility that Donald Trump, master of dissembling, propagating disinformation, pulling rabbits out of hats, mesmerizing his adoring base, empowering his allies and bullying everyone else around him into submission, might yet pull off one more sleight-of-hand and somehow nullify the election and turn the results to his favor.
Our American election system has too many moving parts. Too many cogs that can break or malfunction, as when a candidate can lose an election by the people by millions of votes but win it by the Electoral College. To many pieces that can be bent and manipulated by a corrupt but proficient political mechanic.
It's the 21st Century. We could get rid of all the out-dated, absurdly inefficient moving parts and advance to a more streamlined, up-to-date, state-of-the art election system.
What about this: Let's say every eligible American gets to vote and the candidate who gets the most votes wins. How's that for a revolutionary idea?
What about this: Let's say every eligible American gets to vote and the candidate who gets the most votes wins. How's that for a revolutionary idea?
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