Why is the Electoral College needed anyway?

Yet again I came across an intelligent individual proposing a solution without fully comprehending its ramifications on one of the boards I frequent. This time it is the Electoral College was in the line of fire.

Here's the solution: get rid of the electoral college. That's what's keeping the two parties in power.

If you remove the Electoral College what is the consequence of that action? You will have even less influence upon the election of a President.

Why? You might ask. Easy. We are then just a straight Democracy rather than a Representative Republic. In a Democracy we would be subjected to the whims of the three to five most populous states. Thus, California, Florida, New York, Illinois and Pennsyvania would be SELECTING your next President. I don't know about you but that sounds very BAD to me. It is the Electoral College that evens out the playing field and forces candidates to enter the heartland and the rustbelt. Without it you can bet places like Oklahoma, Wyoming, Kentucky, The Dakota's and my home state of Alaska would NEVER EVEN BE VISITED. They would be ruled by the mobs in the big cities. That is why the electoral college was created. That is why even though it appears to be an archane system, it really is quite ingenious.

Our Founding Fathers were not short sighted in the least when they instituted the Electoral College. They were wise beyond their years!

Don't have good ideas if you aren't willing to be responsible for them. -- Alan J. Perlis, Epigrams, 1970s

Time to Get Back to Work!

I have a diverse set of correspondence that I keep across many political boundaries, due to my belief that we can "agree to disagree" as Oliver North was so fond of saying.

Anyway some might think that based upon my questioning of President-elect Obama's birth certificate that I would be angry or devastated by the outcome of yesterday's election. You would be correct in the assumption that I am not happy to see a socialist at best and possibly even a Marxist elected to the Presidency of the United States. Yet the reality is that if I had not lived in the former Soviet Republic of the Ukraine I would likely have succumb to his infectious rhetoric and platitudes. However, knowing that a man who walks and talks redistributionism is in reality an American Soviet. Thus, I was not fooled. But that is a discussion for another day. The purpose of this post is to address a feeling that I have incountered on several discussion boards today that can be summarized by the following post:

The United States was born of rebellion. The United States will be born again by rebellion. Benjamin Franklin cries out to pick up our arms and cleanse this land of tyrants. The time for talk is nearing an end.

Anglo-Saxon culture, conservative Christian culture, and the Republic must survive at all costs. We the people must rise up and crush the abomination which is the United States of America. We have become a monster that King George on his worst day could have never imagined. The beast must fall lest it devour us all!

This is a very impassioned view of the current political realities that many of the individuals who our President-elect Obama maligned for "clinging to God and their guns." He was wrong to adopt that view as I believe those who believe a second revolution is needed at this point. I will detail why I feel this way in the response I posted to counter my anonymous friend.

I am a Patriot to the core. I am a Constitutionalists in my political stance. However, I do not believe that now is the time for blood spoken of by Ben Franklin! I believe that now is the time for the approach suggested by Newt Gingrich's American Solutions.

If the nation ever revokes the Constitution that will be the day that we as true patriots will be called upon for the use that the second amendment was established to protect and defend this free nation. Until that day we have a peaceful framework within to work out our differences. And furthermore it is our DUTY AS PATRIOTS to utilize that framework to our nation's greatest benefit.

Therefore, I say we rally to the cause of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; for our God, our Country and our Families! We must stand united in purpose and engage our ideological adversaries and persuade them with long suffering that the cause in which we find ourselves is just. That my fellow conservative Americans is what we must do.

We must honor the founders and their vision. We must fight the good fight each day and be logical and passionate in our defense of Life and Liberty. If we do so the Pursuit of Happiness is assured to all. Not it is the pursuit not the guarantee of such a state.

We have a long battle ahead of us. Educate your children to be Constitutionally literate. Furthermore, help the to become astute and savvily aware of the lures and lies that are used to promote the corrosive socialistic influences that are always present in a society. And most important is to help them recognize the REALITY of our situation. Idealism is important but becoming an ideologue is deadly in all its forms as it removes the ability for an individual to speak to one another.

All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing -- Edmund Burke

Here is a Petition for us as Citizen's to ask for REDRESS from our elected officials...

I have signed this Petition and I would encourage you to as well. It is hard to believe that this is even needed yet, Mr. Obama continues to refuses to produce his birth certificate.