Written by: Colin B M Wood 11/23/2016 – 11:08AM ET
Election night left me in a tizzy, and a downtrodden
mood the past couple weeks. I, like 2 million more Hillary backers
than Trump nationwide, are still trying to wake up from a long night
at the bar, with the feeling of trace alcohol still flowing through
our veins, leaving us in a trance like state ever since.
What happened? Our lady had it locked up. We would
finally be the Masters of the Universe, with a woman leading the way,
who carried a new global view of the world. She would lead us into a
new realm of possibilities, and a new relationship with nations
worldwide. Possibly less racism, healing, less judgment, more love,
more understanding, more compromise.
BUT........as we all know........that was Trumped out by
midnight November 7th, 2016 by a movement across most of
America, which we can not ignore, or kick to the side.
I realize, and hope that many Trump supporters will read
this. I am going to try and keep an open mind as I write, and
research for this article the origins of the Electoral College voting
system, the reason why it is still active, and where do we go from
here as a nation, and why. This will be an Independent and fair
assessment of our voting system in America, regardless of my party
affiliations over the past 20 years, or my opinion on this election.
It is clear from my previous writings, and I can tell anyone new,
that I feared a Trump presidency for our country and the world, and
still do. I am trying to keep an open mind, in hopes that much of
Trump's rhetoric during the election was just that, and that he
actually has a brain, and will see the reality and seriousness of his
position, and consider all American's equal in his choices. With
that, I continue this article now with a neutral approach, and it
will not be about Hillary or Trump, or why I think one should have
outdone the other.
As we all know, Trump won the Electoral College, and the
election for President of the United States. We, at this point, also
know now, that Clinton leads Trump in the popular vote by 2 million
votes.
What? Why is Trump our President then? You may ask
yourself. I have a couple thousand friends on Facebook and maybe
2500 between my two Twitter accounts. I, by no means, am an overly
popular person on social media at this point in my social media
(career?). However, I have seen numerous objections to America's
election process from all Democrats, no Republicans, and numerous
European and British friends across the pond, the past two weeks.
Before getting into the original history of the
Electoral College, I ask all of you this.....”Where have all your
complaints about our elections process in America been over the past
241 years?” Yes, there has been conversation before in America
about this process, just as recently as the 2000 election between
George W. Bush, and Al Gore. That year, was the fourth occurrence of
the President-elect having less popular votes than the loser, and the
first since, the 1880's.
It is always fun and sometimes hysterical to watch the
pundits on news channels argue about this topic. They always remain
shallow in their interpretations, and short-changed on their
historical knowledge and understanding of the process. I can only
hope, that as you take this journey through time with me in this
article, that you come out with a complete and full understanding of
why or why not we should continue the Electoral College, it's origins
and it's purpose. Let me preface the rest of this article with the
fact that you can probably just go to Wikipedia and get your own
quick fact sheet on the Electoral College, but I hope to make this
explanation easier to understand.
So, let's get started. It's 1787 and we are looking
down on the Constitutional Convention. They are discussing
the current use of the Virginia Plan to elect the President of
the United States. They are debating over why a popular vote alone
wouldn't be fair. The argument circles around the concept that the
whole of the south are looked at as a majority on it's own, and would
dominate a nationwide popular vote, with the same ethical concerns
among all of them. In other words, the argument being that because
the south was entirely slave oriented, they would always be in
control of the Presidential vote as one entity every election. The
state's individually would not matter, because everyone down south
wanted slavery, and based upon a population representative, they
would always outnumber the rest of the country in their election of a
President who sees things their way only. The rest of the country
would have no say. Therefore, they finally agreed upon a “college
of electors” as it was originally called, until the early 1900's,
when we would change it to the “Electoral College”.
With numerous Federalist Papers, men such as
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton laid out the concepts of the
Electoral College. They felt that by having electors that represent
each senator and House Representative, whom were not associated with
Congress, would allow for a more fair election process. Eventually,
years later, it was agreed that the popular vote in each district
would choose the electors vote for President, then eventually the
Vice President, as he was later added to the same ticket, so to avoid
separate party representation on one ticket, as was the interference
with the Hamilton election. The number of electors in each state
would dependent on the number of senators and Representatives, which
is a reflection of the population in each district. So, basically,
you could have 5 million people in one district vote for let's say
Hillary, but have 1.5 million vote for Trump in another district, and
2 million more vote for him in another district. Trump is going to
win the state, although he didn't win the state popular vote, because
he received more electoral votes, thus representing the whole state.
If Hillary were to win the state based on one district having more
people in it, due to a large city, then it would just be those large
cities voting for our President each election, representing only
their big city struggles, and not what is happening across the rest
of the state. This is the largest reason for the Electoral College.
So, if we only elected our President on a popular vote,
all the big cities that have more people in them, would be electing
our President all the time, only reflecting their big city areas, and
as we all know, all big cities are blue! They will always be blue,
and therefore, we would never have a Republican President again in
our history, and the rest of the Country, which is about 90% red this
year, would go unrepresented. Our forefathers were so amazingly
educated, beyond what many of us can even apprehend nowadays, and
were so wise, that they were able to foresee this being a problem one
day in our Nation's history. But, it wasn't only on intuition, but
upon their electoral experiences throughout the early 1800's electing
processes, which allowed them to refine and retool the Electoral
College concept.
Take a look at this past elections map by country or
district, and you will find what I am talking about. Almost the
entire country is red, except for the big city areas in each state.
There is about 90% red, and 10% blue. I know some of you liberal,
leftist leaning readers are saying yeah well, we should win every
time because there is more of us! Well, I ask you these questions.
Would it be fair to the other 90% of the country that
they never matter in an election?
Would it be America, if only a democrat were forever in
charge, with no checks and balances in the electoral process?
More importantly, for those of you with a connection to
slavery.....Would you have wanted the south to dominate every
election of a President throughout history?
Probably not!!!
If, history had unfolded without the representative
Electoral College, we might be living in a very different country
right now, possibly with enslavement still materializing before our
very eyes!
So, regardless of my party affiliation, I am no racist,
nor do I appreciate any of our Slavery history, except for the fact
that an amazing culture was brought to America, before we were even a
Country, and from the beginning has given a more powerful, beautiful,
and at times, awe-inspiring addition to our melding pot, called
America!
I am upset that Clinton didn't win, although, I am not
crazy, I realize she wasn't a great choice to lead our country
either, but I look at a person's complete persona, and Trump scared
me and still does. Not in a childish way, but of an OMG, he might
destroy the world way. However, in the long run, based on history,
and for our future's hopes, I can say that I am thrilled that we have
the Electoral College.
If you want your woman or man to win, the Electoral
process forces you to get out of your own comfort zones, your own
districts, and get out into those areas, you feel need to be
influenced, and bring your message to everyone! If your democrat, go
into those red areas, and spread your love. If you are Republican, go
into the big cities, and explain your views. This is how changes can
still be made in America, and it definitely starts with the people,
and with a fair process that gives all of America a chance to decide
who will lead them.
I mean, do we really want NYC and Los Angeles deciding
who our President will be every 4 years?
Sorry New York and L. A., I miss you, but I don't miss
living in you!
VIVE LA AMERICA!!!
@colinbmwood
@woodnewsagency1
