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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joseph F. Hubel who wrote (65044)	11/8/2000 11:04:09 PM
From: Mr. Palau	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

They will never get rid of the electoral college, because not enough small states would approve the constitutional amendment. One effect of the electoral college is that it makes a vote in Montana count far more than a vote in Texas.

To: Joseph F. Hubel who wrote (65044)	11/9/2000 10:23:57 AM
From: Joe S Pack	Respond to of 769670

I agree that people have very short memory and media is there to make every effort to keep them entertained. But my fundamental disagreement with the electoral voting system is that "your vote is not equal to my vote" depending on which state you live. I think that must be eliminate if we really want to beat our chest and say to the rest of the world we have a true democracy. I also agree that current election is a fore gone conclusion and whoever wins must honor the existing laws. -Nat

To: Joseph F. Hubel who wrote (65044)	11/9/2000 1:30:45 PM
From: Joe Btfsplk	Respond to of 769670

Origins of the Electoral College, by Randall G. Holcombe, [Posted November 9, 2000] mises.org With the presidential election confusion, www.Mises.org offers this extended analysis of the framers' system for choosing presidents. Under the original design, writes Randall Holcombe, the process was not democratic. The first presidents were appointed, not elected. Not until 1820s, with the rise of Andrew Jackson, did popular voting have a role in the selection of presidents. The original system, Holcombe argues, would have been a better guardian of liberty. <snips> “The modern principle of democracy--repeated in nearly every media account of the Florida vote confusion--holds the president should be elected by majority vote because that will permit government to do what the people want. But the Founders went to great lengths to insulate the activities of their new government from democratic pressures. One of the ways that they tried to limit their government from democracy was by selecting the nation's chief executive through the use of an electoral college, rather than through direct democratic election.” “The electoral college never worked as planned, however, and by 1828, when Andrew Jackson was elected as president, the method of electing the president had almost completely transformed into the largely democratic system that still exists at the end of the twentieth century” “This metamorphosis of the electoral college mirrors changes that have occurred more generally in American government during its first two centuries. At its founding, American citizens believed that their government was created to protect their liberty, and the government was designed to be limited in scope. The Constitution was written to protect the rights of individuals and limit the powers of government. In other words, it was intended to preserve liberty. Not only did the Founders not intend for public policy to be determined democratically, they actively tried to design their new government to prevent public policy from being directed by the demands of its citizens. They recognized that liberty could be compromised by democracy, and that the will of the majority had the potential to be just as tyrannical as a king or dictator……….” “Yet over the centuries the principle of liberty that the Founders fought for became less of a priority for American citizens, and the principle of democracy became more significant. At the end of the twentieth century the term liberty has an almost quaint sound to it, while trying to encourage the spread of American-style democracy around the world has become a significant part of American foreign policy…………”