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Haven't voted. Why did you go and put "My Founding Father is Commander Spock...live long and prosper" in there? Of course, I want to pick that one, lol.
I want to vote that also....it required a great deal discipline and restraint to not vote for Spock.
'"Nice poll, no "no" option. The dark side has won. Revel in it while you can.
Of course the poll was set up to win, kind of like the liberal pollsters steered their polls. Anyway, there is a popular vote option which is what Demoncrats say the want.
I wish the Electoral College functioned as the founding fathers intended. They wisely knew that the populace was too foolish to be trusted to vote directly for the highest office in the land. They were susceptible to supporting demagogues of low cunning who could appeal to the popular vote, but who did not have the intellectual or moral wherewithal to serve as president. They established the Electoral College as an important check on popular will. In those cases when the masses elected a tyrant, Electoral College voters were supposed to deliberate and pick a more suitable choice. If ever there was a time to do this, it is now. We are so clearly headed for utter disaster. Only fools who can't see it or bastards who cheer it on because they want to watch the whole thing burn welcome this. I wish the Electoral College members would not rubber stamp the popular vote in their states. I wish they would pick someone suitable -- a Mitt Romney or someone even more conservative but a person of principles. But they won't. They'll effect this vote for a demagogic tyrant, and the corpses of the founding fathers will cry dusty tears.
While I don't agree with all you have said in this post, and almost certainly wouldn't agree with your choice for POTUS, thank you for pointing out that the EC was created to protect the country from the unwashed masses, which, I should point out, would likely include most of the people on this forum. The founders were not interested in an inherited aristocracy, but that does not mean they trusted the common man or woman to choose the nation's leaders.
I wish the Electoral College functioned as the founding fathers intended. They wisely knew that the populace was too foolish to be trusted to vote directly for the highest office in the land. They were susceptible to supporting demagogues of low cunning who could appeal to the popular vote, but who did not have the intellectual or moral wherewithal to serve as president. They established the Electoral College as an important check on popular will. In those cases when the masses elected a tyrant, Electoral College voters were supposed to deliberate and pick a more suitable choice. If ever there was a time to do this, it is now. We are so clearly headed for utter disaster. Only fools who can't see it or bastards who cheer it on because they want to watch the whole thing burn welcome this. I wish the Electoral College members would not rubber stamp the popular vote in their states. I wish they would pick someone suitable -- a Mitt Romney or someone even more conservative but a person of principles. But they won't. They'll effect this vote for a demagogic tyrant, and the corpses of the founding fathers will cry dusty tears.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pknopp
That isn't why it was instituted.
WestCobb is correct. The Framers created the electoral college for two basic reasons: to give a bigger voice to the smaller states, and to act as a 'firewall' against a demagogue being elected by the People.
Alexander Hamilton wrote about it in Federalist Paper No. 68:
Mr. Hamilton argued that the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
Of course, I doubt that there will enough 'faithless' electors to deny Mr. Trump the presidency. However, if that should happen, I suppose that someone will start a thread entitled "Are you happy the Framers* are defeating Trump from the Grave?"
*(those that wrote the Constitution are called Framers; those that wrote the Declaration of Independence are called the Founding Fathers)
WestCobb is correct. The Framers created the electoral college for two basic reasons: to give a bigger voice to the smaller states, and to act as a 'firewall' against a demagogue being elected by the People.
No, that is wrong also. It made sure that it gave the smaller states simply a voice. There were other lesser reasons but to exclude the main reason makes the argument misleading.
It has gave the smaller states a voice. It has never and will never be used to over turn the elected results.
It made sure that it gave the smaller states simply a voice. It has gave the smaller states a voice. .
More than a voice: it has let the States maintain a certain semblance a Sovereignty.
Sovereignty flows upward from the individual to the (municipality)/(county)/district to the State; execute power at the federal level under the figure of the presidency is the expression of the States united to form a sovereign political economic entity before other such entities abroad, elsewhere, outside the territories and territory of the States united, of the United States. .
Territorial integrity and legality.
Even today, the European Union operates under similar principles, even if a looser confederacy: Sovereignty at the EU level lies with the Council of Europe, consisting of the executives of the member States. In turn, their executive instrument is the European Commission.
And the people? The people have even less say at the EU level than in the US at the federal level, choosing merely representatives of the European Parliament, which has little or no power of the purse, in stark contrast to the US Congress, and in many cases people vote party lists and have little choice in terms of actual representative.
No, that is wrong also. It made sure that it gave the smaller states simply a voice. There were other lesser reasons but to exclude the main reason makes the argument misleading.
It has gave the smaller states a voice. It has never and will never be used to over turn the elected results.
Yes, I am sure that you know better than Alexander Hamilton.
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