This is a really worthwhile read if you have a few minutes, and it covers topics discussed in this Politics forum such as the Electoral College, etc.
Twilight of the republic? | election, republic, states - Opinion - The Orange County Register
Is this the Twilight of the Republic?
By Nicholas Wishek
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
– Abraham Lincoln
The opening stages of the 2012 election campaign have begun. Some early salvos revolve around Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal and what to do about entitlements. President Barack Obama has shifted into campaign mode, and Republican contenders are lining up for a chance to challenge him. By all accounts, it will be a hard fought election. It will also be a testament to the increasing problems facing our election process. Problems that, left unresolved, could lead to the dissolution of our Republic within the lifetime of many of those living today.
If that sounds alarmist or impossible, it shouldn't. No government in history has ever remained in the same form since the very creation of societies. In 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor, wrote, "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy."
If that doesn't sound familiar, it should. In 2010, California voters returned to office the very legislators who are plunging our state ever deeper in debt. For good measure, they reelected U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and sent a Democrat into the governor's office.
When our founders set up our Republic, they feared this very phenomenon. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49." They did everything they could to try to prevent this from happening.
Remember, in the original Constitution, U.S. senators weren't selected by popular vote. It is also why the founders set up the Electoral College to determine the election of the president. In today's politically correct climate, these men would be branded as elitist snobs; however, they were shrewd observers of human nature.
What they didn't have was a crystal ball. While they allowed for the growth of the United States it is unlikely most, if any, understood just how big the U.S. would become. In the first Congress, there were 91 lawmakers in both houses, less than we have in just the Senate today. Anyone who's served on jury duty knows how hard it is to get 12 people to agree. Obviously, this bogs down the legislative process.
The other unforeseen consequence was the effect this would have on the Electoral College that the founders had hoped would mitigate straight majority rule. In the first election, the biggest state had 12 electoral votes, the smallest, three. In 2012, the biggest state will have 55 votes while the smallest still has three. The result is that big states are targeted and valued by candidates much more than small states, increasing the influence of the majority voters in these big states, something our founders had feared and tried to prevent.
The obvious solution would be to cut the Senate in half and trim the number of representatives to something more in line with the original 4-to-1 ratio, giving smaller states more say so in our Republic. It won't happen. Few if any politicians will legislate themselves out of a job.
Two other factors of our modern society were also unforeseen by our 18th century founders. They did not anticipate the pervasiveness of modern media and the bias that has grown in what was supposed to be impartial reporting. In modern elections, the side with the most money can flood the airways with partisan messages that can sway public opinion significantly. While such ads do not attempt to be fair, they are still effective.
Worse, is the media bias in what was once more impartial, hard news. While both sides claim bias, it should be clear the bias leans heavily left. The Center for Media and Public Affairs found that in 2008, 68 percent of news stories were favorable toward Barack Obama and 36 percent were favorable to John McCain.
Perception is swayed by the media. President George W. Bush was perceived as a moron, and was ridiculed because he mispronounced "nuclear." President Obama is portrayed as the most intelligent president in our history in spite of his unwillingness to release his college transcripts, his consistent misuse of adjective and adverb and the tough time his has stringing a sentence together off the teleprompter. When he totally mispronounced "corpsman," it was no big deal.
The upcoming election and the campaign leading up to it may show how rapidly we are approaching the prophetic words of Abraham Lincoln. Our Republic is in peril. I fear the tipping point may already have been reached.
Twilight of the republic? | election, republic, states - Opinion - The Orange County Register
Is this the Twilight of the Republic?
By Nicholas Wishek
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
– Abraham Lincoln
The opening stages of the 2012 election campaign have begun. Some early salvos revolve around Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal and what to do about entitlements. President Barack Obama has shifted into campaign mode, and Republican contenders are lining up for a chance to challenge him. By all accounts, it will be a hard fought election. It will also be a testament to the increasing problems facing our election process. Problems that, left unresolved, could lead to the dissolution of our Republic within the lifetime of many of those living today.
If that sounds alarmist or impossible, it shouldn't. No government in history has ever remained in the same form since the very creation of societies. In 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor, wrote, "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy."
If that doesn't sound familiar, it should. In 2010, California voters returned to office the very legislators who are plunging our state ever deeper in debt. For good measure, they reelected U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and sent a Democrat into the governor's office.
When our founders set up our Republic, they feared this very phenomenon. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49." They did everything they could to try to prevent this from happening.
Remember, in the original Constitution, U.S. senators weren't selected by popular vote. It is also why the founders set up the Electoral College to determine the election of the president. In today's politically correct climate, these men would be branded as elitist snobs; however, they were shrewd observers of human nature.
What they didn't have was a crystal ball. While they allowed for the growth of the United States it is unlikely most, if any, understood just how big the U.S. would become. In the first Congress, there were 91 lawmakers in both houses, less than we have in just the Senate today. Anyone who's served on jury duty knows how hard it is to get 12 people to agree. Obviously, this bogs down the legislative process.
The other unforeseen consequence was the effect this would have on the Electoral College that the founders had hoped would mitigate straight majority rule. In the first election, the biggest state had 12 electoral votes, the smallest, three. In 2012, the biggest state will have 55 votes while the smallest still has three. The result is that big states are targeted and valued by candidates much more than small states, increasing the influence of the majority voters in these big states, something our founders had feared and tried to prevent.
The obvious solution would be to cut the Senate in half and trim the number of representatives to something more in line with the original 4-to-1 ratio, giving smaller states more say so in our Republic. It won't happen. Few if any politicians will legislate themselves out of a job.
Two other factors of our modern society were also unforeseen by our 18th century founders. They did not anticipate the pervasiveness of modern media and the bias that has grown in what was supposed to be impartial reporting. In modern elections, the side with the most money can flood the airways with partisan messages that can sway public opinion significantly. While such ads do not attempt to be fair, they are still effective.
Worse, is the media bias in what was once more impartial, hard news. While both sides claim bias, it should be clear the bias leans heavily left. The Center for Media and Public Affairs found that in 2008, 68 percent of news stories were favorable toward Barack Obama and 36 percent were favorable to John McCain.
Perception is swayed by the media. President George W. Bush was perceived as a moron, and was ridiculed because he mispronounced "nuclear." President Obama is portrayed as the most intelligent president in our history in spite of his unwillingness to release his college transcripts, his consistent misuse of adjective and adverb and the tough time his has stringing a sentence together off the teleprompter. When he totally mispronounced "corpsman," it was no big deal.
The upcoming election and the campaign leading up to it may show how rapidly we are approaching the prophetic words of Abraham Lincoln. Our Republic is in peril. I fear the tipping point may already have been reached.
