“The
Electoral College”. What is it? Now, in order for me to explain this,
you will have to try to remember all the way back to the last election.
Remember what you saw on the news channels? Remember the slick red and
blue graphic of America replacing the weather map and some media
personality pointing to it telling you who was winning the presidential
election based on how many blue vs. red states there were? Now remember-
there were two numbers being counted almost every time you saw numbers
being counted. One said “popular vote”, a term representing the vote of
every single voter in the whole of America. This vote is the one that
gives us warm and patriot feelings while we were casting it on election
day at our local polling places. You know- the one that earns you a cool
little sticker after. The other number we saw said “electoral college
vote”, Which represents a complex number of electoral votes that each
state has. This is the number that really matters. This is the number
that decides elections. The electoral college is the political
mechanism by which we elect our president in this country. Each state
elects so called “electors” to cast votes for a candidate running for
president. Each state is given a certain number of these electoral votes
based on the population of that state. In total there are only 538
electoral votes cast. Electoral votes are the votes the presidential
candidates are really campaigning for. The way each state elects their
electors is different from state to state. However, most are elected by
the different political parties at their party conventions. The tricky
part about these electors is that there is not really anything stopping
them from going rogue and not voting the way the people in there
district voted. If this happens we will have what I like to call a
“George Bush”. A situation where the guy who got less votes wins
office. In fact situations like back in 2000 when America voted for Al
Gore but we got George Bush do happen. Not often, but they do happen.
Like in 1824, 1876 and 1888, and now again in 2000! On these rare
occasions when electors do vote against the vote of the people there
never seems to be any accountability for the electors, they just seem to
slip behind the scenes.
It’s
an American tradition older than the SUV or Nato. The founding fathers
created and institutionalized this system, and we have been using it
ever since. However, the founding fathers did have three other ideas on
the table while they figured out how to elect the president, and one was
to have a popular vote. Why did they settle on this extreme example of
representative democracy known as the electoral college instead of a
direct popular vote? At the time, it was seen as unmanageable to conduct
such a vast project as well many of the founding fathers subscribed to
political philosophies that political parties are "evil" so they wanted a
way to check their power. We also have to remember that most people
were disenfranchised. Out of those who could vote, most were not
educated, so it was feared that a dictator could rise to power. These
are all fine reasons to choose a system like the electoral college over
the popular vote in their day, but we have to remember that we live in a
brave new world, people! It’s the future our founding fathers couldn’t
imagine. Complete with great and easy ways to count votes! In fact we
can all watch the number of our votes go up on our very own magic
picture boxes (T.V.s) It’s the information age and people are equipped
with computers and search engines! We have mandatory public education
from K-12 and a government class that is required by every citizen
before they pass high school! If that doesn’t produce informed voters, I
don’t know what else we can really do. This domestic policy also harms
our foreign policy. When we contest to controversial elections in the
world, foreign leaders like Russia’s Putin and Iran’s Ahmadinejad accuse
America of being the ones with fraudulent elections. And who can really
blame them?
We
are taught to love this country from an early age, through daily chants
to a flag, bright colors and fictitious stories about somebody jerking
off under an apple tree, or not jerking off under an apple tree, I can’t
remember which. I didn’t learn about the electoral college until I took
a political science class in college. Most people have no clue what it
is and are pissed off when they learn about it. It’s sad how many
battles we are losing in this war of ideologies. Aren’t we all sick of
giving our enemies such blatant reasons to hate us, and continue
terrorizing us? Why can’t we just be the country that we teach our
children that we are? Why can’t we the people elect our president? Why
was it that in WWII we could resist torturing prisoners of war for
information, but now we can’t? The electoral college is outdated and
dangerous. Instead of Gore ushering us all into a new world of
Greenpeace we, the freest country on Earth, got Bush- a president that
we did not elect (the first time). Now we are broke and fighting three
wars. I think we're all sick of seeing future presidents of the United
States in some hick town pandering to who the fuck knows because the
electoral college gives that ignorant son of a bitch more voting power
than the rest of us.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Wiki Leaks Jullian Assange
Let’s start this whole thing out with a little current event action. Recently it has been alleged
that Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old former intelligence analyst, stole a butt load (250,000)
of dispatches from U.S. embassies around the world. Some dating all the way back to the
1960s. For all those who don't know the term cable or dispatch is just a fancy way of saying
secret messages. Supposedly he did it by stealing the files on a flash drive from his post
near Baghdad while pretending to listen to ladynGa Ga. (Classic Move) The diplomatic dispatches
were given to Wiki leaks who gave them to newspapers including the New York Times and for
the Deutsch folks, Der Spiegel. Lots of info on foreign leaders and American wars were
leaked, however no top secret information was included.
So, yesterday I watched Wolf Blitzer in his little situation room. He had the fire in his eyes while
he chewed out some nice type politician, asking who was to blame and how by the beard of Zeus
this could happen. Ol Wolfie was out for blood. I found it interesting that Mr. Blitzer was asking
a politician what was in the cables and who was to blame for letting them out instead of doing
a celebratory dance seeing as he is a member of that good ‘ol fashion muck ruckin
American mainstream media. He should be having a field day relaying a new transparent look
into world politics! Finally! A check on all the bullshit that has been shoveled into our ear canals
by greasy politicians all these years! But Wolf seemed a little too stressed about the stability of our
far reaching military industrial complex and what this means for our two and a half maybe
three meaningless wars! He also expressed concerns about whether our puppet regimes in the
global south (Iraq and Afghanistan) could weather the storm. I also find it interesting- who is on
the other side of this debate? Daniel Ellsberg a former military analysis for the Rand Corporation.
The same Ellsberg who released the “Pentagon Papers”. The ones which helped end Vietnam and
who today is seen as a hero. Ellsberg admires Manning and views him as a patriot and a hero. Don’t
let the mainstream media trick you into getting mad at the fact that you know a whole hell of a
lot more about your government’s doings- especially in such a controversial time.
I also find it overly convenient that Interpol issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange,
the leader of Wiki leaks. The charges are for sex and molestation in Sweden and were filed by two
once consensual sexual partners. The case was dismissed but has recently been called back by a
higher prosecutor. See people? See how vast and how far the reach of your Empire has expanded? We should all be getting wet for a chance to take a peek into the black pit of secrets that is the American role in global society, both militarily and politically.
that Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old former intelligence analyst, stole a butt load (250,000)
of dispatches from U.S. embassies around the world. Some dating all the way back to the
1960s. For all those who don't know the term cable or dispatch is just a fancy way of saying
secret messages. Supposedly he did it by stealing the files on a flash drive from his post
near Baghdad while pretending to listen to ladynGa Ga. (Classic Move) The diplomatic dispatches
were given to Wiki leaks who gave them to newspapers including the New York Times and for
the Deutsch folks, Der Spiegel. Lots of info on foreign leaders and American wars were
leaked, however no top secret information was included.
So, yesterday I watched Wolf Blitzer in his little situation room. He had the fire in his eyes while
he chewed out some nice type politician, asking who was to blame and how by the beard of Zeus
this could happen. Ol Wolfie was out for blood. I found it interesting that Mr. Blitzer was asking
a politician what was in the cables and who was to blame for letting them out instead of doing
a celebratory dance seeing as he is a member of that good ‘ol fashion muck ruckin
American mainstream media. He should be having a field day relaying a new transparent look
into world politics! Finally! A check on all the bullshit that has been shoveled into our ear canals
by greasy politicians all these years! But Wolf seemed a little too stressed about the stability of our
far reaching military industrial complex and what this means for our two and a half maybe
three meaningless wars! He also expressed concerns about whether our puppet regimes in the
global south (Iraq and Afghanistan) could weather the storm. I also find it interesting- who is on
the other side of this debate? Daniel Ellsberg a former military analysis for the Rand Corporation.
The same Ellsberg who released the “Pentagon Papers”. The ones which helped end Vietnam and
who today is seen as a hero. Ellsberg admires Manning and views him as a patriot and a hero. Don’t
let the mainstream media trick you into getting mad at the fact that you know a whole hell of a
lot more about your government’s doings- especially in such a controversial time.
I also find it overly convenient that Interpol issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange,
the leader of Wiki leaks. The charges are for sex and molestation in Sweden and were filed by two
once consensual sexual partners. The case was dismissed but has recently been called back by a
higher prosecutor. See people? See how vast and how far the reach of your Empire has expanded? We should all be getting wet for a chance to take a peek into the black pit of secrets that is the American role in global society, both militarily and politically.
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