Does our Vote Actually Count

I think it is important for everyone to remember that we, the United States of America, operate under a political system known as a Democratic Republic. As a Republic, we do not directly elect our president. The electoral college elects the president. The delegates to the electoral college, for the most part are designated, not elected, by the individual states committees. Here is how the constitution addresses the designation of the delegates: Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution states:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

They generally follow the vote of the state, but are actually not bound to do so. Another interesting point about the electoral college is that the states for the most part designate a "winner take all" status for the electoral college votes. This means that if the majority of the voters in the state vote for a candidate, all the electoral votes go to that candidate. Maine and Nebraska allocate their electoral votes based on the winners of congressional districts in these states.

So, does our vote count, yes it certainly does because it determines how the electoral college will cast their votes. 

 

Would I like to see a change in the electoral system, ABSOLUTELY. I would like to see it revert to it's original intent -- that like NH, Nebraska and Maine, the electoral votes are cast according to how each individual congressional district votes, but since the states have control over the electoral delegates and how they will vote, returning to original intent is a leap which will probably never happen.

RIGHTING THE SHIP OF STATE

I was recently brought to task for posting political commentary without offering any concrete solutions.  So, I thought I would offer my view of what we as a nation need to accomplish in order to right the ship of state.  Please feel free to comment on each, any or all of my suggestions and also feel free to offer some of your own.  Perhaps we can use this a the starting point to create a legitimate political platform for 2016 and beyond.

I'll give you the first 4 steps, 1) get the money out of politics by fundamentally changing the campaign finance laws. My proposal is and has been to limit campaign contributiuons to the federally mandated limit of $5400.00 per candidate, but I suggest that only legally registered voters be allowed to contribute. No PAC's, Unions, corporations or foreign nationals (including illegal aliens) be allowed to contribute. Contributors can contribute to as many candidates as they wish, but only twice per cycle, once before and once after the primary.

2) Eliminate the current income based tax in favor of a consumer based tax known as the "Automatic Payment Transaction Tax, with the caveat that it be collected at the local source ad paid upwards, 40% to the local government, 30% to the state and 30% to the Fed. This eliminates the major flaw in the current tax code -- the political use of the tax code to social engineer society and pick and choose the winners and losers based on their ability to lobby congress.

3) This is probably both the hardest and easiest to accomplish -- change the electoral college in each state back to it's original intent by eliminating the "winner take all" voting structure in all the states except a couple and return it to allocating the votes by winners of each congressional district. For example, if 70% of the popular vote in 7 of 12 state districts were won by one candidate and 5 by the other, the votes would be 7 for one and 5 for the other. This will make the presidential race much more competitive forcing the candidates to pay attention to the entire country rather than a few major urban swing cities and it will eliminate the ability for a very few highly populated urban areas to dictate the vote for the entire state.

4) And finally, we MUST, absolutely MUST, institute term limits for national level legislators. The advent of professional politicians such as Obama, Reid, Schumer and Pelosi, McConnell, Boehner, McCain and and the Bushes have become the agents of death to this Republic as it stands. this will return politics to the Patriotic citizens of the country who believe in helping the country for a short time and returning to private life rather than having a class of professional politicians who believe in helping themselves first at the expense of "we the people".

If we are able, in some manner shape and form to enact these four legislative actions, we will go a long way to guaranteeing our ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.