At 26 numbered ‘episodes’ of Breaking the Narrative, if this were a 90’s anime series I’d be through my first series. I even got a couple of specials under my belt too. Some might look at me and say ‘its time to stop!’ But I say no! No stopping until I’m either dead and cremated or we hit a true free utopia.
So the former.
That being said, here we are going into our subject for today: the Electoral College of the United States of America. Before we begin with this I need to make something absolutely clear to those who weren’t pushed through civics courses when they were young like I was. The United States isn’t a pure democracy, nor is it a pure republic, it is a democratic republic. The importance of this is paramount. This is why state and commonwealth rights are important along with the rest of the entire system. The individual states, depending on size and format, are democracies for the most part. Federally, though, we are a republic. There are reasons for this and these reasons will be made clear here in this article and in good faith I might offer some ideas to improve the system we have.
To begin, I feel I need to suggest a LOT of reading for people to go into after this, especially if you care at all about United States political theories and concepts. In fact, I personally wonder why a lot of this isn’t required reading in our schools today.
Then I look at who runs our schools.
Of course, you should go and read any and all of the writings put forth by the founders of our country. A book that would help you pull it all into context and help you understand how much of our systems of government are based upon the Greco-Roman concepts is key- The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment by Carl J. Richard. The last one there was a required reading for my college civics course back in 2004. Though I’m sure most in social justice might avoid that tome like the plague because it destroys a lot of their arguments about how this country was built. But today we are only going to look into how it mentions the Electoral College in its Models, Antimodels and Mixed Government and Classial Pastoralism chapters. Let’s Hammer This In!
First and foremost there is one thing a lot of people neglect to mention or even realize, The Constitution of the United States was written and put into being on September 17th 1787. This is 11 years after the Declaration of Independence and 4 years after the Revolution ended. That was because in the prior four years they experimented with various government structures and failed multiple times before hashing out the system we use today and have used for over 200 years, leading to Washington being our first president from 1789 till 1797. If you thought before that 4 years was an arbitrary term limit it does have a meaning. It was meant to symbolize the 4 years from the final victory against Britain until the codification of the Constitution. In fact, once you read into a lot of the reasons the attempts at government failed within those four years, you’ll learn that it was because they had experimented with direct democracy quite a bit and had some additional uprisings for reasons from British loyalists all the way to disgruntled citizenry who didn’t feel properly addressed. What they figured out from attempting direct democracies was it wasn’t just the distance or the education levels of the populace that cause the problems, but that when made into more of the collective which tends to happen with direct democracies, people tend to forget reason and dive into emotion. Gee, doesn’t that sound familiar?
As such they needed to come up with a system that would have the benefits of a democracy, the checks and balances of a republic, and the ability to prevent the emotional rule of the mob. With that, our current three branch structure of government and the process known as the Electoral College was born. The way the College operates is based on how much representation your state has in Congress. There is one electoral vote for each senator and one for every single representative in the House of Representatives. This way each state has at least three votes. In the beginning, the senators and representatives themselves put in the votes, but over time it evolved into independent electors in order to prevent partisan bias from overtaking an electoral process.
That is why the idea of today’s electors forfeiting their vote for Donald Trump is so dangerous to our system, because this system was modified to today’s method for the express reason of preventing an overpowered establishment from becoming a tyrannical oligarchy. This is also why a second civil war is a potential threat, because it is written into the Constitution that if such an event were to take place we would have to exercise our right to overthrow said government. From seeing how reactions were at the Army/Navy game (football,) if such a revolution were to take place I’m guessing the Army and Navy would side with the militias, not our establishment government.
Now that we know why this important system exists and why direct democratic rule is basically a bad thing because of this, considering the fact that most of America’s population are at the largest coastal cities I had suggested a modification. In fact this modification is sort of built in, and we can institute it in 2020 with a combination of an election year and a census year. We use the census data which is usually collected by July to remap the representative districts to redefine the amount of representatives per state. Granted most won’t change but it will determine which states provide a necessary service to the Union and what populations are least heard. Due to the actions of recent years I feel a few key representatives may ask that representation be pulled back from the states that caused the most trouble in 2016 of California, Oregon and New York to be redistributed to the strengthened industry states that will be formed by jobs being brought in during the next four years. Of course this aspect is my speculation and hope. One could say that the constant protests have shown just how unfit for politics most of these people, who perhaps didn’t bother voting anyway, are.
The next part I’m going to suggest is to how we vote. Part of the reason many don’t vote that are eligible for it is the hassle involved with getting to the polls. Lets face it, most of us are unable to get to our polling places easily. I lucked out because I live right next door to mine, so I walked. It was good cardio. But I was also thinking about mail-in and early voting and how that took root this time around. For a time I thought of an internet based system but there are too many ways that can be abused. So I got down to one last concept, a uniform paper format across the states, one you can only get if you are a confirmed US citizen. It would be sent out by the Governor’s office in each state and mailed back directly. Then, the actual Electoral process which is not televised at this point should start being televised from the state legislature to ensure complete transparency and encourage said elector to fulfill the will of the people, because as of now in 24 states they don’t have to. This is obviously quite dangerous. The way I suggested has a safety on it to ensure the will of the people though by having the legislature right there watching along with the people through local news organizations. Of course if you have suggestions for this concept please leave them in the comments below.
In conclusion, the Electoral College, however imperfect a process it is is a necessity that our founders put into place specifically to prevent the evils of mob rule and violent authoritarian collectivism. Our founders saw themselves as on par with those who developed the governments of Greece and Rome, and for good reason. As such it sickens me to see so many of the SocJus mob piss and moan about their imperfections. They weren’t paragons to be sure, but they were, at their core, strong and noble people. So with any and all luck the electors will come to their senses and tonight vote in the will of the people of their states. That should be the moral imperative from which they are working. Because lets be honest, if Alex Jones finds the idea of Russia hacking our elections to be laughable you know its full of shit, as it sounds like a major conspiracy. Now before I finish up, if you did vote for Donald Trump and against nuclear war with other superpowers my family thanks you. With that in mind next week will be an after Christmas fun time. Since it will be my Yuletide gift article I think I’ll let it stay a surprise. Until then please remember to Game Freely!
- Breaking the Narrative Episode 124: Nice Try Kotaku! This Won’t Work Though! - July 8, 2019
- Breaking the Narrative Episode 123: We Shouldn’t Go Straight to Mars! How Anime Got Space Right! - July 1, 2019
- Breaking the Narrative Episode 122: You’re Reviewing What Now? The Dissenter Web Browser! - June 10, 2019
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