Trends He Can Live Without
Tom Bridge has some trends he can live without. I have to say that I agree with all of them. In particular, the second. Bush is in fact the President, by rule of law. That's not to say, of course, that the rule of law shouldn't be changed.
I understand the original point of the Electoral College (though many people smarter than I disagree about what that point actually was), but I think it's well past the time of usefulness. In a country that preaches democracy, freedom, and self determination, one person's vote should not count more than any others. I had high hopes that after the 2000 election there would be a movement to replace the electoral college with a direct election.
Hillary Clinton made a quick statement against the electoral college soon after the Florida debacle, but just as quickly she started to pull away from that statement. People, of all parties, seem to me very unwilling to admit that the current election process is unfair. And if anything needs to be fair, it's elections.
I've had a lot of conversations about this lately, and I'm quite convinced that we need the electoral college. The USA is a Federal Republic, meaning, we're made from constituent states, and then we select the president as a function of the Federal part of the Federal Republic. Each state votes on who they think should be president, then the states send off their representatives and the states determine the new El Jefe for the country.
If the Electoral College were dissolved tomorrow, the candidates would spend almost all their time in 15 big cities, spread across 13 states. States like Montana would never see Bush OR Kerry. States like Delaware would not see Bush OR Kerry, and while, I'm sure there are many residents of both those places who might prefer that sort of thing, it's bad for the country.
Posted by: Tom Bridge at March 16, 2004 06:08 AM
It's a perfectly valid argument, no doubt, but I still say that giving everyone an equal vote is more important. Not that this is that good of a point, but with television, people all over the country will still hear the candidates, and still pick them in the primaries.
Posted by: Tommy at March 16, 2004 08:11 AM
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I've had a lot of conversations about this lately, and I'm quite convinced that we need the electoral college. The USA is a Federal Republic, meaning, we're made from constituent states, and then we select the president as a function of the Federal part of the Federal Republic. Each state votes on who they think should be president, then the states send off their representatives and the states determine the new El Jefe for the country.
If the Electoral College were dissolved tomorrow, the candidates would spend almost all their time in 15 big cities, spread across 13 states. States like Montana would never see Bush OR Kerry. States like Delaware would not see Bush OR Kerry, and while, I'm sure there are many residents of both those places who might prefer that sort of thing, it's bad for the country.
Posted by: Tom Bridge at March 16, 2004 06:08 AM
It's a perfectly valid argument, no doubt, but I still say that giving everyone an equal vote is more important. Not that this is that good of a point, but with television, people all over the country will still hear the candidates, and still pick them in the primaries.
Posted by: Tommy at March 16, 2004 08:11 AM