So, because Dick Devens hasn’t understood, can’t understand, and seemingly never will, he wants to change a vital part of our Representative Republic to take away yet another Check and Balance that was DESIGNED to have checks and balances. So because he doesn’t understand something, he wants it simplified; even if he doesn’t understand the severe repercussions of doing so. From the Laconia Daily Sun (reformatted, emphasis mine):
For years I have read and listened to explanations of the Electoral College. They don’t make sense to me. Googling it is mind-boggling. The Electoral College didn’t make sense to me when I learned about it in high school, in the ’50s. The person who gets the most votes should win. In 2000, Al Gore got about 500,000 more votes than George W, Bush. In 2016, Hillary Clinton got about 2,850,000 more votes than Donald Trump. It could have happened the other way around; Gore and Clinton could have won with a minority of the vote.
The Founding Fathers did not have infinite wisdom; they were human beings, like you and me, capable of making mistakes. The Electoral College is a part of our Constitution (via Amendment XII) which should be amended. All votes should count. Any chance of that happening?
Dick Devens
Center Sandwich
No, Dick, Gore and Hillary didn’t lose because they had the majority of votes, they lost because they had the MINORITY of votes. See? Simple. Let me ‘splain a bit more because YOU are the one making a mistake. A YUUUUGGEE one (but it is with the intent that all Progressives desire).
Here’s all you really have to know, Dick: Al Gore and Hillary Clinton lost, not a national race for President, but 50 State races for President. That’s right – each state holds its own election for President. Whether a State has a “winner takes all” format, a proportional winner system, or by a Congressional district winner system, it is still a State race to win or lose. Then depending on the number of electors a State has, they go to the appointed place at the appointed time and cast their ballots, in representing their States, for President.
How many electors does NH have, Dick? Again, it is simple: add up our Congressional Representatives (2) and US Senators (2) = 4. A large state like has a larger number, of course.
Sure, the Founders were not infallible, but they WERE smart – especially in creating checks and balances. In this case, without having an Electoral College, the will of the small States would be overwhelmed by the populations of just four large States (see the illustration, above). This is Consistent with the philosophy they had in having the Senators be equal in number because they were representing STATES and not people. The House, however, represents the People (with the number from each State proportional to its population). Again, another form of Checks and Balances.
Sidenote: which Progressives SEVERELY hamstrung in passing the 17 Amendment which took the election of Senators out of the hands of State Legislators (e.g., a Representative of Representatives for a Representative Republic). They did under the rubric of “corruption” in those Legislators. However, ever since, they’ve continued to rail about the “corruption” in Senate races – like the “money in politics” (even as Democrats Hillary and Obama, for example, raised and spent FAR more money than anyone else).
So, poor Dick can’t understand the simple idea behind the Electoral College. He, in effect, is telling the rest of us that because he is ignorant, we should disenfranchise New Hampshire voters (as well as other small State’s voters) in Presidential elections. Way to go, Dick!
A Direct Democracy is NOT a stable government over time – the Founders knew that from intently studying their history in trying to figure out the most stable kind of government possible. In fact, it was one of the worst. Frankly, they were, in the aggregate, political geniuses. Yet, this is the road that Dick and his Progressive pack of Anti-Constitutionalists want us to take. And Progressive / Democrat Dick Devens, he of the sour losers class with Al Gore and Hillary at its head, continues the Progressive / Socialist push towards an ever more direct democracy for America and further away from the Representative Republic philosophy on which we were founded. It wasn’t bad enough that they got the 17th Amendment put in place that put in direct elections for US Senators that transformed them from being the check and balance for States Rights to merely a longer termed House Representative.
And States Rights, at least the original idea, went up in smoke.
Why? Another simple idea to wrap your arms around, “Power.” Much more easily obtained in the Direct Democracy than in the Representative set up we have now. They KNEW and CODIFIED the idea is that distributed power is best and not aggregated into small centers. Power is intoxicating and addictive – the more you have, the more you want. Why else do politicians seldom retire?
And Progressives like Dick Devens want to make that worse.
Oh, for the record, let me just throw in that if it were not for one of those large States, California – an overwhelmingly Democrat State, she would have lost the “popular” vote as it was the State that gave her over 2 million votes than for Trump.
Sore losers, all.
I would suppose, based on his own admittance, that this small concept is beyond him that most other legislation would be far beyond his ken. We all should remember that the next time he runs.
