Wednesday, December 7, 2016

DESPITE DEMOCRAT WHINING, THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS A WORK OF GENIUS…


In the wake of an election in which Hitlery ‘won’ the popular vote, albeit with votes from primarily one state, but Donald Trump was elected president by winning the Electoral College, we have heard an increasing level of whining coming from those within the Democrat Party as well as from a vast majority of our supposed ‘journalists’ in the state-controlled media about the need to abolish the Electoral College.  Now I’m quite sure that if the situation were to be reversed these same people now doing all the whining about abolishing the Electoral College, would instead be expending just as much energy to keep it as they are now expending in their effort to abolish it.  And oddly enough, it’s a recent Gallup survey that showed the lowest percentage of people ever in a poll saying they would support amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College and decide presidential elections by the popular vote. 

According to a Gallup analyst, “This year, for the first time in the 49 years Gallup has asked about it, less than half of Americans want to replace the Electoral College with a popular vote system.”  Now that’s not news likely to be music to the ears of our many whining Democrats.  Gallup’s latest poll on the issue, conducted November 28-29—three weeks after this year’s election—showed that 49 percent said they would amend the Constitution so that the nationwide populate vote would decide the presidential election.  However it was 47 percent of respondents who said they would keep the Electoral College system.  Since 1967, Gallup has conducted ten polls in which they asked Americans if they would approve amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College.  The first five polls were conducted from 1967 to 1980. These included one poll in 1967, two in 1968, one in 1977 and one in 1980.

In this most recent poll, respondents were asked: “Would you approve or disapprove of an amendment to the Constitution which would do away with the Electoral College and base the election of a President on the total vote cast throughout the nation?”  The second five polls were conducted from 2000 to 2016. These included two polls in 2000, one in 2004, one in 2011 and one in 2016.  In this second set of polls, Gallup asked: “Thinking for a moment about the way in which the president is elected in this country, which would you prefer: to amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most total votes nationwide wins the election, (or) to keep the current system, in which the candidate who wins the most votes in the Electoral College wins?”  Prior to this year the highest percentage who had said that in the five Gallup polls asking the same question was 37 percent. That was in a survey done December 15-17, 2000.

In all ten surveys done by Gallup, the greatest support for amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College came back in a November 1968, just after that year’s election.  According to Gallup, “Support for an amendment peaked at 80% in 1968, after Richard Nixon almost lost the popular vote while winning the Electoral College.”  And it was the folks at Gallup who went on to say, “Ultimately, he wound up winning both by a narrow margin, but this issue demonstrated the possibility of a candidate becoming president without winning the popular vote.  In the 1976 election, Jimmy Carter faced a similar situation, though he also won the popular vote and Electoral College.  In a poll taken weeks after the election, 73% were in favor of an amendment doing away with the Electoral College.”  The fact that so many favor doing away with the Electoral College, makes clear just how ignorant most people are as to why it even exists.

The continuing, and somewhat overwhelming, level of whining we’ve heard coming from the Democrats about the need to get rid of the Electoral College has never really made all that much sense to me.  Because if you actually add up all of the states that are considered as being either “safe” for any eventual Democrat nominee or “favor” that nominee, you get 217 electoral votes out of the 270 that are needed to win.  Do the same for states considered safe or favoring any Republican standard-bearer and you get just 191 electoral votes.  And that Democrat advantage becomes even more pronounced if you add to the party’s total the states that typically “lean” Democrat.  Place such states as Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes), Iowa (6) and Nevada (6) into the Democrat column and the party’s electoral vote count surges to 249, or just 21 votes short of winning a presidential contest.

Back when Donald Trump was lagging badly in the polls, any time the republican candidate accused the electoral system of being rigged, Democrats would scream over each other to explain to him just how fair, balanced and sensible is the mandated framework of the US presidential election.  Well, Trump won, and the roles are now flipped, with liberal pundits from Michael Moore to Paul Krugman, slamming the concept of the Electoral College, which Trump won decisively despite losing the popular vote.  Senator Babs Boxer is retiring at the end of the current term, but that isn’t stopping her from introducing one last big bill.  Old Babs introduced long-shot legislation to abolish the Electoral College, roughly a week after her candidate lost to the political newcomer, Donald Trump.  The purpose of her bill is to leave the choosing of a president to the popular vote, and one look at the 2016 electoral map should tell you that’s a pretty nutty idea.

Look, I get it. I really do!  The Electoral College is old and dumb and undemocratic.  At least that’s what I would probably think too if I had no context or depth of understanding for why it exists.  This is the only explanation I can deduce for why outgoing Senator Babs Boxer, and any number of other Democrats, think that getting rid of it is a good idea and that a straight popular vote wouldn’t be even more problematic.  Bab’s blatant ignorance about how our federal government is set up and why shows in her statement issued regarding the bill: “In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote. The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts.”  Every American’s vote already counts.  What Babs seems to be missing here is that there’s always gonna be a loser.

Apparently, old Babs thinks that our Founders didn’t even bother to consider the option of electing our president by popular vote. That their reasons for electing the president through the Electoral College had nothing to do with the time they lived in and the problems they foresaw still exist today.  Perhaps even more so.  She, and the growing list of others who wish to see it abolished, obviously don’t understand that the Electoral College is a necessary function of federalism and the best way to ensure that the voters in each state are represented equally (in the Senate) and proportionally (in the House of Representatives).  Despite what old Babs and her many Democrat cohorts may think, I think we call safely assume that it’s not something that was devised for no other reason than to simply to screw with Democrats.  But you know how Democrats are, little more than a bunch of spoiled brats.

Babs claims that she only wants everyone to feel like their vote counts.  But somehow she is failing to recognize that under her proposal of a straight popular vote, only about four states could decide the presidency, which flies in the face of her stated goal. Our Founders thought about this and decided against it for obvious reasons.   I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Bab’s bill goes nowhere. Even if there were enough constitutionally ignorant dopes in the Senate and House that would vote “yea,” our one saving grace it that three-quarters of the states would have to ratify it over the next seven years to get it passed as an amendment. And while I am certain some would gladly cede more power to the federal government, many more would not.  Now I have no doubt that there will come a day when the Electoral College is done away with, but I’m quite confident that it won’t be in my lifetime.

In reality, Bab’s bill is nothing more than a repeat attempt to dismantle the electoral process because Democrats are mad their corrupt candidate, for whom they sacrificed all, won’t be the first woman president after all.  That’s the way it always is with these people.  How much whining was heard from the right when Barry was elected and then reelected?   Sure we called into question his obvious lack of qualifications and complained because the guy was, and still is, the most corrupt individual to ever hold the office of president.  But then we got busy just trying to survive.  The Democrats, for whatever the reason, whether it’s because they presume their motives to be so pure or because they profess to know what’s best for the rest of us, feel that they should win every election and if they don’t it’s only because something nefarious has taken place.  Let them have their temper tantrum.

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