Hamas War

Thursday, August 13, 2015

The New "American Revolution," 2015/2016

Two hundred and forty 240 years after that first American Revolution, which carved out a new country populated mostly by a motley group of transplanted Europeans in an enormous continent far west of England and Europe, there's a new revolution taking place. The electoral system developed by those first revolutionaries in the 18th century didn't give too much power to ordinary citizens. Democracy as we know it did not exist then.

First of all, only men could vote. And there wasn't a direct vote for the President/Vice President ticket. And there certainly weren't primaries.  Today in the United States, the new president is inaugurated late in January, even though elections are held early November. Actually, the inauguration used to be in March. That's because each state had to vote first and then instruct its representative whom to vote for in the Electoral College. Only after the that stage was there an elected president.
The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators. (NARA)
Nowadays, the process remains, even though it's easy to count the popular vote within hours of closing the polling stations all over the country. In theory there can be a President who received fewer votes than the other candidate, because the Electoral College system awards only full amounts per state. To me this system is unwieldy and undemocratic. I don't understand why it still exists. But a change in the electoral system isn't the true aim of this post.

Bush III aka Jeb Bush
Hillary Clinton
I see this upcoming Presidential Election as a People's Revolution in the USA. The public is showing a strong disregard for mainstream, conventional politicians. A year ago, or even six months ago, all the pundits took for granted that the candidates/nominees would be Democrat Clinton II versus Republican Bush III. You can't get more conventional than those two. And even though Hillary Clinton is biologically female, from her ill-fitting pants suits to her policies her sex is irrelevant. And I'm referring to Bush III as Bush III, because it's so clear that if he wasn't a Bush, he would never be considered "presidential material."

Granted there's still more than a year left before the 2016 elections, but I don't know if besides being the only two candidates surviving a plague that wipes out all of the others, there's a chance that Bush III aka Jeb and Hillary will develop enough popularity to win enough primaries to get nominated.

Republican Donald Trump
Democrat Bernie Sanders
The conventional political pundits are still trying to predict the falls of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Trump is no stranger to headlines and controversy, the builder is not an expert in building political machines. Sanders, on the other hand, is used to being considered on the ideological fringe as a politician and wasn't known nationally until after his campaign began gathering momentum.

The primaries system has given the American voters, the ordinary citizens, a power they never had before. And now in 2015, we see that they have rejected the political machines in both major parties.  Eight years ago, the Kennedy women anointed Barack Hussein Obama as Democratic candidate and pulled the political rug from under Hillary. That was the tipping point for Obama's success.

This year, ordinary citizens from the  the Right and Left have chosen their favorites, neither of whom have strong backing within their respective parties. And, yes, I do consider this revolutionary, The New "American Revolution," 2015/2016.

The 2016 Presidential Elections are sure fun to blog about!

11 comments:

Leah said...

It's interesting Batya. Yes, there is an undemocratic issue of an individual state receiving a higher power (amount of voting power) when more people overall may have voted for another candidate etc... always flabbergasted me...
Another interesting thing is we are making aliyah and now I am paying only very little attention to this election. I will vote, yet just not with zeal. I believe that there are elections and there are selections. These past two were selections and now there.is a housing "equality" bill that is being rammed down the throats of the people that basically states if an impoverished person can't afford to live in a.high income and housing area, well by golly.we.will bring the hud housing to that neighborhood. In other words: forced dem voting bill.
It's already in place and guess who's paying for it? That's right. They are going sector by sector, neighborhood by neighborhood, voting precinct et al and changing the vote by this action...
I believe this, Batya is revolutionary and we are.moving on.
Ultimately Batya my.new statement has come to:
I.vote (American) conservative, yet I'm praying for Moshiach.

Batya said...

Good luck in your new life.
The electoral college increases the inequality between the states and individual power of a vote. The weight/power of a voter in NY is much less than Utah, which isn't fair.

Leah said...

Exactly

Anonymous said...

I'm not going to vote. Before Obama's second term I told my husband I will never vote again. I don't have any fire in me for American politics. Does anyone really believe there will be a honest, straight forward election with this Left? I do not believe they are ready to let go of power. Obama as we've seen cannot be trusted. Happily I throw out all voting material when it comes to my house. Please, do not waste your time rebuking me for not voting. I simply could not care less..

Emunah

Batya said...

I've never voted. We made aliyah when you had to be 21, and I left a couple a months before the elections.

Leah said...

Anonymous,
No judgement. Don't worry. I hear you. I just am someone who does vote, yet I truly believe that it's messed up in many ways. So many are corrupt.
I exercise my right to vote, yet I believe it is more for us to see where we are.as.a.nation.
In addition, the voting has become a place of corruption and taking over the polls; votes being dumped in the trash etc...
I truly think that Hashem will place in to office who we need for whatever reason He sees.
I sign petitions for all sorts of causes, yet truly think that my prayer is more effective. I am also praying.for Moshiach and Hashem's Malchut!!!!

Leah said...

THAT inauguration will really be something!!! :-)

Anonymous said...

Have either of you heard the song, To Be An Arab? Courtesy of a resident of Haifa, Israel;

disappointed by the Anglit on this thread, so far

Anonymous said...

be concise, accurate, otherwise Y'all will be held responsible for ushering Israel back into Hostile Babylonian territories; sans assistance

i don't want to have to be the meanest toward 3 and 1/2 Billion Women ie 3,500,000,000 Failures, including those Rebellious daughters, from sunrise to sunset and well into the midnight hour;

wonder where She's headed

ALLI COATES ‏[@allicoates]: People always want you the most when you have one foot out the door

Anonymous said...

Leah: don't volunteer in Haifa, Israel, since you'd likely abandon your responsibilities;

if I find out that Israeli soldiers abandon Safed, due to Controlling Dogs from Lebanon, one more time, I will be really, really upset

Anonymous said...

Ladies, DO I NEED TO CROSSPOST THIS MEDIOCRE THREAD?

Ladies. DO I NEED TO ARCHIVE Ur SHIITE that REQUIRES SERIOUS EDITING, please, before i go there, yet again, to be accosted by obnoxious vendors

Sultan Knish: Believe in Ideas, Not Politicians