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.
No comments:
Post a Comment