Tag: Electoral College

Republicans Continue to Fight Against Equality in Voting Rights

Republicans are once again fighting tooth and nail against the John Lewis Voting Rights. Behind all of the outrage and hyperbole of their determination lies one simple, unavoidable truth. The Republican party sees people of color as second class citizens existing under the management of white supremacy. And they have a couple of powerful tools at their disposal, both given to them by Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, yes, the founders of the nation themselves.

It becomes increasingly obvious that the founding fathers (for whom my long-standing respect slowly but surely decreases) made two enormous gaffes that virtually eliminated the “..all men are created equal.” statement in the Declaration of Independence.

1. The Electoral Collage, which continues to this day providing the most racist and most hateful minority of Americans with the means to undermine—if not effectively eliminate—the rights of the majority, most notably those of people of color and non-evangelical “Christians.”

2. The assignment of federal election governance to the individual states. Certainly, states should have control over those elections held within and electing officials within that state and that state only. However, it is beyond any level of logic or legitimacy for federal elections, assigning seats within the national government’s executive and legislative branches, to be vulnerable to the prejudices and whims of individual states. …It is the very definition of insanity for national elections not to be run under rules, procedures and accountability set forth by the national government, and applied by the national government uniformly and equally within all states. If the first gaffe allowed democracy to be held hostage by a minority of the citizenry— as it did and does—the second was a virtual surrender by fiat of that democracy. One can only wonder why the intelligent, much adored and very nearly deified founders should make two such complementary and, potentially fatal, ( in terms of our democracy ), “mistakes” at the same time.I think we are well past the point of needing to question the real motivations of our revered founding “fathers.”

Was true democracy, and equal rights for all Americans, ever, really on the table? Or does Lady Liberty raise her torch of something that the founders never actually intended?

Those sly Republicans will be, well, sly…

This time around I’m providing a link to an excellent, thoughtful, article debunking one of the GOP’s sly talking points: the sacredness of the Electoral College.

This is definitely a MUST READ. The Washington Monthly accurately and succinctly exposes the lie of the Electoral College serving as a beneficial tool in Presidential elections.

Well-indoctrinated Republican, Dr. Lerah Lee—please excuse me, but I’m always amused  by people with a PhD or EdD who insist on referring to themselves as “Dr.” as if they are a real physician, or somehow much smarter than you and me—is running for Congress in Georgia’s 7th Congressional district.

In her email, which somehow found its way into my In-Box, Mrs. Lee fervently, while also attacking Democrats in general and specifically AOC as racists, defends the Electoral College with the same old Republican talking points. The Republican party has always had a problem with things like LARA: Logic, Analysis, Reasoning, and Accuracy. This article explains exactly why their talking points attempting to prop up the archaic institution of the Electoral College are 100% wrong. 

If you have received an email from Mrs. Lee, you will want to read the article. If you have a friend who has received one from her, or another Republican stalwart, please pass this along to them.

Facts are facts, and in this case the facts are also the truths. Please don’t be fooled, and don’t let a friend be fooled.

The link:

The Electoral College is not what its defenders say it is

Surviving the Trump Threat and Moving Forward

There is a question we no longer need to ask. You know what it is. It’s that question we asked Germans for decades after WWII. How did Germany allow themselves to succumb to Adolf Hitler?

We don’t need to ask any longer because we are seeing how it happened, as it happens right here. In America. In the 21st century. Trump is taking America down that same road, and all we do is watch.

Trump has a rabid core of supporters formed of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and fake ‘Christians’ who call themselves evangelicals. He has the support of a Republican party that has lost all sense of either ethics or morality. They are dismantling the core values of the Constitution. They have already made America a laughing stock on the world stage. Now Trump and his National Socialists are taking America from laughing stock to world terror.

And all we do is watch. Because, you see, we depend on our democratic underpinnings to save the day. First the mid-terms, then the ouster of Trump in 2020. Hopefully.

*Hopefully*

Just like all those Germans in the 1930’s who were sure reason would triumph before Hitler and his Nazis took over completely. Oh, and the hopeful ones were in the majority, too. Because, you see, their democracy had two fatal flaws. It was too democratic. It really had no built-in safeguards against a takeover by a charismatic psychopath. And there were insufficient restraints on the power of a single man.

Our own forefathers made exactly the same mistakes. There are no provisions in our Constitution to keep an immoral tyrant from seeking control. And there are roadblocks sufficient to stop a determined Hitler persona from doing whatever he (or she) wants, once in office? The Congress can serve that purpose only if the President’s own party doesn’t also control both houses. The Supreme Court holds no enforcement powers. The nation’s top law enforcement officials serve at the pleasure of the President and his party. The emoluments clause has as much real substance as a Marvel comic book hero. There is no Superman.

IF the United States does manage to survive Donald Trump, these failings need to corrected by Congressional action up to and including Constitutional amendment. It needs to be done with a sense of immediacy. Yes, I have suggestions. They may need to be refined, of course.

1. Psychiatric testing for all Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidate. This can be done by a panel made up of an equal number of psychiatrists from each party. They should also all be teaching level psychiatrists at respected Universities and medical schools, not just anybody with a shingle.

2. No party shall be allowed to control both houses of Congress. The easy fix is for the Supreme Court to allot ‘extra’ votes to the minority party in one of the houses. This is not unfair. Having a single group viewpoint in charge of both houses of Congress is unfair, and dangerous.

3. Abolish the Electoral College.

4. Give the Supreme Court enforcement powers.

5 Reduce the power of the President to make war. He/she should not be able to initiate military action alone except as a direct act of defense/retaliation against a specifically identified hostile force/country in response to a clear act of hostility against America itself. This must be limited to defensive action not to include American forces invading foreign nations. Anything other than this must be authorized by Congress.

6. Once justice department officials have been appointed, the President must not be able to fire them without the concurrence of both houses of Congress.

7. The emoluments clause must be re-written and given teeth. A majority of either house of Congress should be able to instigate the opening of an evaluation. The President’s cabinet, since they have been appointed by the President, can have no part in the process, other than opening an evaluation process by simple majority.

8. No individual who has ever lobbied for industry can be placed in charge of a government agency.

9. The Vice-President cannot serve as the tie breaker in a tied Senate vote. A tied vote must send the questionable legislation to a select committee made up of an equal number of Senators from each party to reach an equitable solution.

10. The President must not have the ability to single-handedly push the nuclear button. He/she must have the concurrence of the Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs. To this end, That individual’s office must be located in the White House instead of the Pentagon.

11. Congress must take immediate action on legislation which spells out clearly that the government shall have no connection whatsoever to any religion or religious body or group.

12. Citizens United must be revisited and overturned. Congress. must take corporate and lobbyist donations completely out of American elections.

13. Congress must review every area of Presidential executive authority and determine legislation to limit it.