re: Whole system is a dinosaur anyway:
Right. The system has not been updated, since the original 1700s version. It looks like more citizens voted for Gore, but Bush will be President, because the Founding Fathers didn't really totally believe in democracy. They created the Electoral College, to stand between the voters and the decision.
There is also a tremendous resistance to making the voting process easy. If I can do all my Christmas shopping, enter limit buy and sell orders at my broker, switch money between bank accounts, all over the phone or internet, and do it at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, then I ought to be able to vote that way also. Voting by mail is just a stepping-stone on the way to a totally instantaneous, electronic system. And the referendum system is just a stepping-stone on the way from the obsolete representative-democracy system to direct democracy.
I don't think the electors are allowed to defect. Was the election just a suggestion, and the electors can do whatever they want? If they do, it might create enough of a mess that the country finally considers junking the Electoral College.
If the Congress needs to sort out the mess, and the Senate is split exactly 50-50, and the tie-breaker (the Vice President) hasn't been chosen, then what? They should give Washington D.C. a single Senator, so ties can't happen.
You're right about continuing gridlock. The Republicans will have razor-thin majorities in Congress, and whoever is President won't have a mandate, and won't be able to do anything. We will not see any big tax cuts, any resolution of health care issues, or any big initiatives on any crucial issues. And Greenspan will get what he wants: continuing debt reductions. Hopefully, we can all just forget about Washington, and get on with making money and living out lives. Sort of like a good software program, it's working well if you don't notice it's there. |
