Some Political thoughts

All Good or All Bad?



If you are a reader of this blog, you already know it is not my nature to see things as black or white.  Ergo, one of the "good" things to come out of all of the conversation about the 2016 Presidential Election results is that any curious consumer of information will be driven to investigate more deeply the powers of the office of the president, the constitution, presidential orders, presidential memorandum, and the "meaning" of our founders.  I believe that is a positive thing.  Even if "not too many" are driven to delve deeper some will.



Here is a link that will allow you to read the actual presidential orders that have been issued recently:

https://www.federalregister.gov/executive-orders/donald-trump/2017

Any parts of these you find objectionable, please feel free to comment and support your decision.

Is the Electoral College in need of reform?

First it is my opinion that a clear understanding of the Electoral College. it's genesis, and how it was ultimately structured and why.  There are many good books and references on the writing of the Constitution but the one I am familiar with is "Madison's Hand, Revising the Constitution" by Mary Sara Bilder.  I found this book several levels "above my pay grade" in it's scholarly and academically thorough approach to the subject.  But it is an accurate (IMHO) picture of what actually happened.

Second, and I'm jumping ahead a bit here, but it is important to realize that "electors" within a state are governed by state law.  How that all works has very little to do with the constitution.

The constitution does not specify HOW electors within a state will be selected, but only that once selected they will cast their votes for candidates.

You can check for yourself which states have the "all or nothing" elector rule.

Having laid this groundwork, a constitutional amendment is required to change the electoral college as described in the constitution:

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/provisions.html  <---- a="" college.="" constitution="" describes="" electoral="" font="" is="" link="" of="" section="" the="" this="" to="" which="">

As you see, there is nothing preventing the states from deriving a revised method of selecting and directing electors.  

fairvote.org is a site and organization which has developed a well thought out (IMHO) approach within the states to alter the way electors behave.  I encourage you, if you have read this far to explore the site and draw you own conclusion. 

 http://www.fairvote.org/voter_choice 

The Media is absolutely free to say whatever they want whether it is true, factual, slanted or not.  Ref: USC, Numerous SCOTUS rulings.

Third, propaganda is not nearly as blatant as some/many people seem to believe when they hear the word.  I was listening to PBS this afternoon and heard someone like Christiane Amanpour (it may not have been her, I don't remember) but it was a person with some stature. Repeatedly they said 'Muslim Ban'.  Now that is just prejudicial and propagandizing a news story about a Presidential action (ref. 2nd paragraph above).  


As far as I'm aware, every president since Andrew Jackson has tried to increase the power of the "Office of the President".  Jackson did it, Teddy Roosevelt did it, FDR, did it, Eisenhower did it, etc.  They ALL have done it to some extent, some more than others.


MOST of what the POTUS does can be undone by the congress or the SCOTUS.  That's the way our Republic is organized.  That is how it was designed.


Protests, demonstrations, rallies etc are fine ways to draw attention to an issue and to try and garner support for a particular point of view.  BUT it is NOT an effective way to actually execute change.  Ya gotta be in the system to do that.  So get into the system.


I think I'm through for now.