Today we are in the thick of the Super Tuesday frenzy and cannot wait to see who our two top contenders are to be, is this how it was meant to be? by Gary Wood
(conservative)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and more are all focused on the Presidential Primaries. We, as voters, are given every angle they want us to hear regarding the on-going news and events. If we're political junkies we watch and read accounts daily, follow the polls, share our opinions, and bask in the excitement. If we are voters we tune in now and again to see who deserves our vote for President of the United States of America, Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces, and Executive Branch leader of our Federalist Republic. After the primaries we tune in to see if our candidate won and whom the chosen one is for their Vice Presidential running mate. If our candidate lost we start to decide who will deserve our vote based on who did gain the nomination or simply throw up our hands and decide not to vote for either of the winners, slipping back into apathy until the next Presidential Primary.
The tradition of the primaries began in Oregon in 1910. From 1910 to 1968 the number of Republican and Democratic State Parties using a primary system bounced from a high of 20 states to a low of 13 states. It was 1949 when New Hampshire simplified ballot access and in 1952 began the tradition of first in the nation to cast their vote. Since the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention primaries have become the main source of guiding the selection of state delegates who will attend the national conventions for each party. Whether a state uses caucus systems or primaries or a combination the eventual goal of all this early wrangling for position is to gain enough national delegates so a candidate can secure their parties nomination at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions traditionally held in the summer prior to the general election in November. There are many candidates for the nomination early in the process yet primary result after primary result starts forcing some from the race based on a lack of viability due to the low percentages of votes in early states.
The big showdown, Super Tuesday, first comprised of 8 Southern States in March of 1988. The number keeps growing as more and more state parties want their voices to have some say in which candidate will be the nominee. Sometimes the races are so close or two candidates from a single party have such appeal the winner will pick the loser as their running mate, a sort of secondary prize especially worth offering if the winner has some weak states the loser can help secure. Once the parties hold their national conventions we finally get to know exactly who the nominees will be for President and Vice President. By the time this happens most voters are pretty familiar with the two party's tickets and have decided to vote for one or the other or neither ticket. As you can tell the tradition has not been around very long yet it is critical to who takes the reigns of power within the Executive Branch of government. An extremely popular candidate can even sway the power in the Legislative Branch. This year we may well see the most powerful control of both branches by a single party in many decades depending on how well the Democratic Party continues to effectively pound on the pulpit of Republican failure.
The joke is on the people, you and me! Most reading this far knew the tradition and wonder what the point is. We know how the process goes, we know it's changed some, but it is how we democratically elect our President and Vice President. We know because it is a part of our life experience, it is how we've done it since we can remember and it just is how it is. The joke is as we read about states and parties we forget the key factor, it is ONLY the two major parties that get to play in the primary game! The states are the State Republican or Democratic Party overseen carefully by the Republican and Democratic National Committee. It went nearly unnoticed this year when the DNC penalized Florida for moving its primary forward without proper permission, unnoticed in the sense that the primaries we are riveted on are controlled by just two-parties. The same way these two major political powers slowly usurped power and control in Congress, through history and tradition, they have completely usurped all control in the way we the people elect the President and Vice President.
It's a joke because the powers running the parties know there isn't a chance for any third-party, Independent or independent voice even within their party to win. As many who have read my articles in the past are aware, an oligarchy is control of the many by the few. Our nation was never meant to elect the President and Vice President in this manner yet without so much as a Constitutional amendment the people have allowed just two political parties to dominate and thereby have helped secure their oligarchy rule, usurped power without even a question from voters. Why? Because that's the way we do it, that's the democratic history of our country and voters don't know deep, foundational history well enough to demand an end to it.
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution lays out the manner in which we were to always elect the President and how the Vice President would then be decided. It was a complex system designed to insure against the threat of tyranny from party politics. The Electoral College and the process for choosing were not selected based on the century but based on the future. It was yet another check and balance system placed carefully within the Constitution to protect the minority from the majority. Just as the election of our Senators was not to be by direct popular vote, neither were the President and Vice President.
At least the Constitution was properly amended to adulterate Senatorial elections, in 1913 with the poorly conceived 17th Amendment (which needs to be repealed in my opinion). However, the process for the Presidency was usurped slowly through changing tradition and convincing people the methods laid out by our Constitution was some how outdated and archaic. It was not, after all, democratic! Yet, did the two major parties educate the people to understand it was NOT supposed to be? Study the history and grasp the reality of what we've allowed to happen. Controlled by the leadership of two largely uncaring parties the joke is on us if we don't correct this adulteration very soon! I know, I don't think it's a very funny joke either!
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2008 by Gary Wood - Permission to copy with attribution granted.
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