People are pushing the idea of removing the Electoral College!?! IMHO this is a very bad idea.
The Electoral College was formed with an eye to preventing any possibility of groups of states with selfish regional interests from ganging up on smaller states or states far away from their problems and issues, and then pushing their agenda onto those smaller or more remote states. It was a way of making sure that we were all in this together. Removing the Electoral College will clear the way for exactly this kind of ganging up to happen and will probably guarantee the breakup of the U.S. into smaller regional governments with localized platforms.
We stand a chance of breaking up anyway because we have grown past the practicality of democracy. The concept of "one-person-one-vote" does not work well once you get past a certain number of people. It's like nanotechnology - all the rules change at certain sizes. Of course, we may also break up simply by leaving Mr. Trump in place, however, there is no reason to expect that anything bad will happen just because he is president - unless we are not paying attention to what is going on! People voted for change, but I don't think they wanted change in the Electoral College... they wanted a say in their own lives.
Trump is only in for four years. Someone else may follow him IF we hang together as a country. Tearing up the Electoral College is almost certainly going to have long-term results that we do not want and didn't expect, including the breakup of the nation. However one chooses to look at the situation, it is clear that Trump is a harbinger of change, and going back to change what worked in the past is not where we should be putting our time and attention. We must keep the democratic principles and move on and up to new forms of self-governance that are yet to be created.
Comments
Randall B. Ashelman
Penny as is often the case I totally agree with what you were saying. It is time for a change in government not the electoral college.
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July 27, 2017
Julian Lauzzana
I would agree that most of us (including myself until recently) don’t understand the reason for the Electoral College. We should all understand the reason for it and not conveniently be “against” something only when it suits our needs. I am seeing the change vote aspect of this but I sure wish it did not come with the package of greed, white man dominator, endless economic growth, misogyny, racism, etc. Oddly I am not sure the other candidate offered much else (other than symbolically on the surface). What happened to Bernie? I do think that no matter what we are looking at a move towards more autonomous regions and away from the hegemony of globalism as the current shift; beit Brexit, State Rights over Fed in USA, or whatever. There has been simply too much watering down of culture by the multinational corporations in collusion with expansionist government. French people bombing McDonald’s is an extreme example of this counter globalist movement but there are many such cases around the world. Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness indicator is my favorite positive example. It is all a reaction to culture’s being threatened on some level. Which has plenty of good. As this happens it seems that plenty of scum will inevitably rise to the surface. But that is where the Lotus Flower gets its nourishment, right?
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Thanks for your thoughts and for the support, Randall. I am very concerned about what I see happening. I think the “gotta have instant gratification” chickens have come home to roost!
July 27, 2017
Zak McKracken
The following Tweet sums this up nicely:
https://twitter.com/KevinRandall5/status/798596744342892544
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Thanks for sharing this, Zak. I appreciate it.
July 27, 2017
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