Checks & Balances / Electoral College

Checks & Balances

Sound like a breakfast cereal right? Probably should be, but if it were anything like our form of government it would never have the same flavor, would have lies and distortions on the packaging, and you would not be able to find it in stock when you needed it. That’s the way things go…..

Now, I want to be the first to say I am very proud to be an American, and our system may not be the best, but it’s better than any place else I can think of. Well…Sweden would be good, but only if I lived next door to the Swedish bikini team…. Anyway, the point to all this is that I want to preface my remarks about this country by also giving my allegiance to it. As a citizen I have a right…nay obligation to question my government, and the system we live under. But often we confuse questioning with standing up against, and I want to make that distinction clear from the beginning.

Anyway, I believe the checks and balances that were built into our system served its purpose a long time ago. It prevented one person or party from gaining too much power. That being said, the executive and legislative branches of our system function too close together to really provide a check and balance. It’s more like a punch and run. The Supreme Court on the other hand sits up on high, and watches the fray while rarely, if ever, getting in the mix. You rarely hear a senator or representative bashing a supreme about the problems in our country, but they attack the president daily.

A true check and balance would have at least three completely separate but equal branches. Since senators and representatives can run for president, who better to clash with? Who better to blame, or point fingers at? Who better to make life miserable for? That’s the problem, our elected officials are so concerned about their job or next one that they fail to take care of the people they serve.
However, because senators and representatives rarely if ever become a supreme, the court stands separate and is respected for the position it holds. If being a supreme required a vote, they would be in the same mess that the legislative and executive branches are in.

Electoral College

This brings me to the Electoral College. The first time a teacher told me that the person with the most votes may not win the presidency I was shocked! Who could possibly feel that anything but a majority vote should win public office in our society? Well, that’s the way it is here….as we all know from the 2000 election. I can hear all the different reasons behind the matter, but to me it is just a way for the elite to throw an election should a person they don’t want wins the popular vote. I know that sounds like a conspiracy, which by definition it is. But I’m not a conspiracy nut, and know the rules of the election upfront, so that helps.

But why doesn’t the popular vote in our country decide who is president? Why some convoluted system of electors, when a simple majority will do? Half plus one always works for me. Instead, electors are assigned based on the vote of the people, and these folks get together at their respective state capitals to vote on who the president will be. Hopefully the elector will cast his/her ballot for the candidate based on the vote of the people they represent, but they don’t have to! Why create a system that may not give the country the results it wants? Well, our founding fathers were anything if not open to options. And this gave the system a way to supposedly correct mistakes. It never has, but who knows?