Presidential Politics (Sorry, long post.....)

...but it is important.
Since it seems this is all there is in the news lately, I figured I’d jump on the band wagon and express my opinion.

Your vote does not count. Sorry to break the news…. At least in presidential elections, that is.....

I think our fore-fathers would be rolling in their graves if they knew what was going on.
If they understood and knew about our technology today, they would abolish the Electoral College. It was an idea that made sense back in the 1700’s but not now. Not with the information highway and text messaging and websites on our phones.

The Electoral College, my understanding of it, was established in order to determine who was elected president. How could everyone get there vote to the capitol though? The United States was growing. There were no automobiles. No planes, no trains. So what do you do? Can’t have the whole community get in a wagon and ride to cast a vote. So you elect a delegate to go and place your vote for you. Decide how many delegates an area has by the population. The delegate is supposed to then go and place the vote for the candidate the people back home want. This way just the delegates could travel to the capital and there could be one meeting to count the votes and – ta-da – a new president is elected.

Fast forward – The year is 2000.
The national results of the presidential election according to Wikipedia.com –
George W. Bush received 50,456,002 votes by American Citizens.
Al Gore received 50,999,897 votes by the voting public.
So, based on the popular vote, Al Gore should have been sworn in as president.
But because of how the delegates are allocated across the country, George W. Bush was named president (Bush received 271 delegates while Gore received 266). So any body out there that voted for Al Gore, did your vote matter? No. Does that reflect your opinion, your choice? Nope.

Democracy? I don’t think so. My vote did not count in the scheme of things.

Now let’s look at present day.
The democrats are still trying to decide on a nominee. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting it out. Should they be?
According to the individual votes – the popular votes – from the primaries so far, Obama is ahead (see www.realclearpolitics.com or www..usaelectionpolls.com ). What I found is this --

Popular Vote Total for Democratic Primary so far:
Obama == 17,535,458
Clinton == 17,493,836

Oh wait – maybe you heard Hillary say *she* has the lead in the popular vote. Well that is only if exclude the caucus states and just toss the opinion of the residents in these states away. Yes, ignore these states and then Hillary is ahead in the count. (Isn’t it amazing how you can look at numbers, exclude the ones you don’t like and then claim VICTORY!?).

But it goes by delegates. And according to the current delegate count for the states, Obama is ahead.

So how can Clinton believe she can win? Oh, there are now “super delegates” that can vote. They can decide to put Clinton in as the Democratic nominee to face McCain in November. The “super delegates” can claim they believe Clinton would be better for the Democratic Party then Obama.
Hmmmm, what about the popular votes?
The votes you and I cast at the primaries? The votes that are supposed to be used to put the candidate we want, we the American People, want in the election? Does our vote matter? Does it count if these “super delegates” can just basically veto our vote?

It is a shame that I sit here thinking my vote does not count. I do believe it matters in local politics. Yes, my vote is heard and reflected in who wins City Council or Governor in my state. Yes my vote is heard for my state’s senators and my state’s representative in the house.

But as for president, my vote does not matter. I live in RI where we get 4 measly electoral votes. The candidates don’t usually even stop here to campaign. Only 4 votes.

What would George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and the rest of the “delegates” at the Constitutional convention in 1787 think???