I didn't not vote for President Elect Trump, but I respect the will of the people and give the incoming President a chance to succeed.
Following the election outcome there has been a call the abolish the Electoral College. This same thing happens every four year regardless of popular vote outcome -- people on the losing side always calling foul with our electoral college system. In 2012 it was Donald Trump himself who tweeted (of course) the electoral college was 'a disaster for democracy'.
I would argue we need the electoral college now more than ever. It is imperfect, but it is the best way to balance competing interests in our Republic. I say now more than ever because of the dense concentration of population in our big city urban centers with universities as well as headquarters of big business and finance. There may be competing interests within the urban/suburban areas, but the the electoral map shows that they are predominately blue. Without the electoral college, this majority would have the power to trample the minority living in the rural areas and smaller cities and towns. Individual states have an interest in federal policy, but states like Wyoming and the Dakotas might potentially have their voices drowned out in a direct democracy.
The founders were visionaries, thoughtful men who saw the potential harm of a direct democracy at the federal level. They devised a system to better protect against factions or the interests of population centers.
LINK
Rural areas, small and medium sized towns are naturally going have smaller populations, less voters. Their interests get representation in Congress at the district and state level-- many states split their vote and have one Dem and one GOP senator. But these smaller population areas, even when we add all their numbers together, they are still smaller than a single big city, look at Illinois--a mostly red state with a blue patch up in the corner. To prove that at the state level the blue patch (Chicago) doesn't always get its way, they have a Republican Governor.
If you really want to understand the potential harm of a direct democracy, the tyranny of the majority trampling over the minority, you need only look at California and Prop 8. In one night, through a ballet measure championed by out-of-state religious interests, 17,000 legally married couples had their rights stripped away and put on hold for five years. The check against this trampling of minority rights ultimately fell on SCOTUS and it was Justice Kennedy who saw the harm caused to LBGT families and their children. Many "values" minded people didn't like the decision, and they even argued for abolishing the court or limiting its judicial review authority-- Those "values" folks forget that it was also Kennedy who vigorously tried to pursued Chief Justice Roberts to overturn Obamacare.
Bottom line, in America, the losing side has a short memory. We can all be sore losers and cry babies. When Americans don't get their way they can be fickle and hypercritical in their support of our system and traditions for balance of power and protect of right-- all found in the Constitution. LBGT were patient in waiting for justice, letting the system play itself out.
Voters in the rust belt and other states with gutted factories and plants have had their voices heard. To dismiss them as invalid is, IMHO, un-American. Protest peacefully and lawfully if you feel you must, but maybe take a trip out to Ohio, Penn, drive through some small towns with boarded up buildings, massive junkyards and scrap piles and meet some of your fellow Americans and hear their stories. I plan to.
Following the election outcome there has been a call the abolish the Electoral College. This same thing happens every four year regardless of popular vote outcome -- people on the losing side always calling foul with our electoral college system. In 2012 it was Donald Trump himself who tweeted (of course) the electoral college was 'a disaster for democracy'.
I would argue we need the electoral college now more than ever. It is imperfect, but it is the best way to balance competing interests in our Republic. I say now more than ever because of the dense concentration of population in our big city urban centers with universities as well as headquarters of big business and finance. There may be competing interests within the urban/suburban areas, but the the electoral map shows that they are predominately blue. Without the electoral college, this majority would have the power to trample the minority living in the rural areas and smaller cities and towns. Individual states have an interest in federal policy, but states like Wyoming and the Dakotas might potentially have their voices drowned out in a direct democracy.
The founders were visionaries, thoughtful men who saw the potential harm of a direct democracy at the federal level. They devised a system to better protect against factions or the interests of population centers.
LINK
Rural areas, small and medium sized towns are naturally going have smaller populations, less voters. Their interests get representation in Congress at the district and state level-- many states split their vote and have one Dem and one GOP senator. But these smaller population areas, even when we add all their numbers together, they are still smaller than a single big city, look at Illinois--a mostly red state with a blue patch up in the corner. To prove that at the state level the blue patch (Chicago) doesn't always get its way, they have a Republican Governor.
If you really want to understand the potential harm of a direct democracy, the tyranny of the majority trampling over the minority, you need only look at California and Prop 8. In one night, through a ballet measure championed by out-of-state religious interests, 17,000 legally married couples had their rights stripped away and put on hold for five years. The check against this trampling of minority rights ultimately fell on SCOTUS and it was Justice Kennedy who saw the harm caused to LBGT families and their children. Many "values" minded people didn't like the decision, and they even argued for abolishing the court or limiting its judicial review authority-- Those "values" folks forget that it was also Kennedy who vigorously tried to pursued Chief Justice Roberts to overturn Obamacare.
Bottom line, in America, the losing side has a short memory. We can all be sore losers and cry babies. When Americans don't get their way they can be fickle and hypercritical in their support of our system and traditions for balance of power and protect of right-- all found in the Constitution. LBGT were patient in waiting for justice, letting the system play itself out.
Voters in the rust belt and other states with gutted factories and plants have had their voices heard. To dismiss them as invalid is, IMHO, un-American. Protest peacefully and lawfully if you feel you must, but maybe take a trip out to Ohio, Penn, drive through some small towns with boarded up buildings, massive junkyards and scrap piles and meet some of your fellow Americans and hear their stories. I plan to.
