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

To: DMaA who wrote (65544)	11/9/2000 10:14:57 AM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

It's rubbish. If Bush had known the constitution doesn't matter, I'm sure he wouldn't have structured his campaign to win the electoral college at the possible expense of forfeiting popular votes.

To: DMaA who wrote (65544)	11/9/2000 11:32:31 AM
From: Johannes Pilch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

This is rubbish indeed. The direct underpinning of our democracy is rules. Morris advocates ignoring the rules to select our next president on the basis of the broad political philosophy on which the rules are founded. Political proceedings linked to specific rules are messy enough, what with the existential ignorance so frequently employed by our leaders. Proceedings linked directly to broad political philosophy is simply impossible. We use broad philosophy to make rules, and we use rules to conduct political proceedings such as the selection of presidents. That is why our democracy has survived for so long. We generally read from the same book of specific rules that have emanated of broad thinking. Were we to invert the system as Morris advocates, we would create a mess of broad principles that in Bill Clinton's Slick-Willy-nilly world can mean anything and therefore would mean nothing. We have accepted the rules surrounding electoral politics, and therefore whatever happens as a result of those mutually accepted rules is what we must accept. If we together think the rules should be changed to more effectively reflect our broad ideals, then we must together change them. But we ought not discard the rules that link us to our broad ideals to rely on the broad ideals alone. If Bush wins in Florida, he should be president as our system requires. To claim the Electoral College has a duty to elect Gore merely because Gore has taken the popular vote is quite a stretch of the truth. Our rules give the College no such duty. The rules in fact heavily press upon Electors to vote according to the will of the people of their respective states. They may vote against the will of their fellows, but they should be considered "Faithless."