Way back during the interminable weeks between the 2000
presidential election and the final decision in Bush v.
Gore, I spent hours upon hours explaining to otherwise
intelligent and politically savvy folks just how this country
works. Most of these discussions centered on the Electoral College
and the media-induced confusion over its presumed complexities.
They usually began: "But Al Gore won the popular vote; shouldn't he be the president? Isn't that the way a democracy works?" Explaining that we are not a democracy but a constitutional republic was not that difficult; most Americans still have some notion of what our Constitution is, although many haven't any idea of what is actually in it.
The toughest thing, though, was trying to put over the idea that, as envisioned and enacted by our founders, ours is a sovereign nation of equally sovereign states. I would ask those persuaded by the "popular vote" press pundits, what they thought about the U.S. Senate; why it was created and how its members were apportioned, and was it fair that Rhode Island and New York had equal representation there? And finally, the way I usually wound up these chats was by asking, "What exactly is the name of our country?"
Yes, the fact that our Fifth Columnists of the Fourth Estate are constantly agitating for the abolition of the Electoral College should tell you just how vital it is to our constitutional form of government, and just how much the thought of states' rights terrifies the left. And with good reason.
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/05/the-states-our-last-best-hope
They usually began: "But Al Gore won the popular vote; shouldn't he be the president? Isn't that the way a democracy works?" Explaining that we are not a democracy but a constitutional republic was not that difficult; most Americans still have some notion of what our Constitution is, although many haven't any idea of what is actually in it.
The toughest thing, though, was trying to put over the idea that, as envisioned and enacted by our founders, ours is a sovereign nation of equally sovereign states. I would ask those persuaded by the "popular vote" press pundits, what they thought about the U.S. Senate; why it was created and how its members were apportioned, and was it fair that Rhode Island and New York had equal representation there? And finally, the way I usually wound up these chats was by asking, "What exactly is the name of our country?"
Yes, the fact that our Fifth Columnists of the Fourth Estate are constantly agitating for the abolition of the Electoral College should tell you just how vital it is to our constitutional form of government, and just how much the thought of states' rights terrifies the left. And with good reason.
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/05/the-states-our-last-best-hope
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