Posted on 11/18/2019 1:48:47 AM PST by Jacquerie
Subtitle: Nationwide Consensus.
People react differently to the term “Federalism.” Some connect it to long-gone slavery, state’s rights, Jim Crow and oppression. Others, like myself, regard it an essential element of the unique American republic, that of divided responsibilities between the nation and states. Neither is federalism a competitor to democracy; it is its willing servant.1 Of course, thanks to the 17th Amendment, federalism is but a shadow of its former self. But, a small portion of our Framers’ original federalism lives on in the Electoral College (College).
Those who detest the concept of powers retained by the states typically oppose the College and support direct election of Presidents. They regard the College an undemocratic and indefensible 18th century relic. However, federalism is one of the fundamental and essential principles of our Constitution. Those unfamiliar with federalism will naturally misunderstand the College and shake their heads in wonder at our less-than-straightforward method of Presidential elections.
Most people aren’t aware of the College and far fewer understand its importance and simple congruence with the American federal republic. State-based College electors interface with Congress, and like the pre-17th Amendment Congress, the College is both democratic and federal.
There’s no doubt that direct election is outwardly simple. It is so simple, it’s the way of Venezuela and Russia. However, when it comes to securing liberty, history has not been kind to the worldwide record of direct presidential elections.
(Excerpt) Read more at articlevblog.com ...
Obama shaped today’s rat party. It isn’t interested in Constitutional limits nor shared power in consensus. As far as He was concerned, the nation was to bow down to His will. Thanks in large part to a ball-less Senate and a compliant Scotus unwilling to cross the first black President, we succumbed to his lawlessness. Someday, unless we take measures during the Trump years, Obama’s despotic ruling model will return. When it does, I doubt the rats will let go. They will not make the mistakes they made in the 2016-2019 near miss coup.
I listened to a guy on the radio that called the non electoral system as the Russian system. You can win an election with 31% of the vote by having many candidates run to divide up the votes.
Multi-party republics are based upon winning (usually) with the most votes (it could be as low as 20-percent) but you have to go and build a coalition to achieve 50-plus percent.
A good example would be Germany, with 40-plus parties existing in a national election. The rules state that you have to have a minimum of 5-percent to pass the gate and get seats in the legislative system. So you count up the votes and find that only six parties achieve that, and the 34 other parties failed (some miserably with less than 200 votes).
The leader is then given 30 days to build the coalition with the five potential partners. Failure? The second-place party then gets the nod to build (with 30 days). After that failure...if no coalition exists, you go to another election.
The plus of multiple parties is that they build a menu of things they support or go against...so people are able to find a party that reflects upon their priorities. The negative is...if you end up in a coalition...you might find that the partnership has weakened your party’s priorities.
Spain would be a good example of how badly the system works, and multiple elections are now the norm because they can’t build a coalition.
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