My American govt. essay counts as a blog post...

Everything our country is today is the result of our founding fathers and the dreams they had for America. From the beginning they wanted a country free of tyranny and full of liberties. They recognized their citizens, and not only that; but the opinions that came along with them. Overall Government was created for guidance; not control. It provided structure and gave rights to its people through the Constitution. While this may have been true, nothing is absolute and it’s safe to say everything has its flaws. Government in all forms will perpetually have room for improvement. With saying that, what shaped our country today for citizens should be held with high value and not taken for granted.

So leave it to the founding fathers to come up with the brilliant idea of having a manual for running our country; better known as the Constitution. Within time, many other great suggestions and documents came forth. Consequently, one can’t create the manual for a president without actually electing one first. Hence how the much debated, electoral college idea came into play.

With this in mind, the founding fathers seemed to have a pretty good idea on how they wanted to run their country. Without a doubt, the reasoning for the Electoral College at the time was somewhat obvious and more than probable. Surely, they were simply sick of having a undeserving and snobby Tyrant bossing them around. So it’s safe to say, they wanted to make it near impossible for a King George the Third replica to run their country.

The Electoral college made it so that everyone’s vote counted; well for the most part. Like Americans today, Americans back then liked to argue too. So the framers had to come up with a compromise. Some citizens solely believed in popular vote, while others felt it didn’t give smaller states enough power. Then the arguments arose about giving congress too much

power and leaving the individual with none. After much heated debate, The Electoral college was considered to be a plausible method.

So how does the Electoral college work exactly? Well what the Electoral college then, is kind of different from how it is now. To enumerate, back in the late 1780’s each state was given a number of electors equal to the combined total to those in its delegation in the House of Representatives and Senate. Then they would choose their electors accordingly, making sure they were not Senators or Representatives themselves. Expectations for these electors weren’t high or anything, as long as they were on the same page with everyone else. When it came time to vote then all of the Electors of their respected state would meet up on a certain time and date. It was important when they do this, that their ballot be cast in their own state to avoid any kind trickery or deception.

After time, it was soon realized this method of election wasn’t working as efficiently as it was intended to. In other words, whoever came up with the idea to elect the runner-up as Vice-President probably didn’t really think that one through. Therefore, one of the first revisions came about replacing it with the 12^th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804. Following this major change came much more provisions and improvements like Amendment 23, thus leading up to now.

Today the foundation and underlying principles of the Electoral College are the same as they once were, it’s just everything in between that has changed. Honestly the whole process and wording of it all becomes quite humdrum and leaves for somewhat of a tedious read. To illustrate this, when one takes their ballot and votes for their President of their choice, really what they’re doing is electing a slate of Electors that represent them in each state. Then at the end of this equation, the electors from every state combine to form what we call the Electoral College.

Surprisingly, that’s not all. It’s important to also know that each political party has their own set of electors for each state. Accordingly it corresponds with the number of electoral votes appointed to each state. Then after the people vote, the party with the most electoral votes in each respected state then appoints all of those Electors. Next each Elector places their individual vote for both the President and Vice President. Finally, come January time all across America television screens are filled up with little blue and red states; truly depicting how the Electoral college works.

For example, although I was only thirteen at the time of the 2004 election, it still remains vivid in my mind. As we all know at this time red standing for the Republican party, Bush and blue for the Democratic party, Kerry. That was a close call and all I could remember seeing was the states filling up with the color red. Although the majority of America looked like a battlefield covered in red, Kerry still managed to pull 48.3% of the votes. Bush of course attaining the other 50.7%, won the election. Many Americans were angered and thought the election was unfair, thus a huge controversy emerged. People demanded recounts due to many irregularities and states soon were questioned. No one really knows the whole truth and whether or not the election was fair, but I guess it’s appropriate to assume views on the Electoral college and certain Electors, weren’t entirely positive.

So with saying that, it has been one of America’s top debates from the beginning. Like most things there are both pros and cons. Being the pessimistic I am; lets start out with the cons. First off, popular vote has never been guaranteed; and as long as the Electoral college is around, it will remain that way. People tend to base the legitimacy of an elected president off of what everyone else around them has voted for, however this just can’t be done with the Electoral college. Next, direct election is considerably favorable among a lot of citizens today, as opposed

to the Electoral college. However, anything our Government is not choosing to do-- is generally favored. Another con is that like illustrated in the 2004 election is honesty among our Electors. The list could probably go on, but now it’s time to look at the bright side of it all.

One of the most notable pros to this whole debate is that Americans like entertainment. So with entertainment comes television and sometimes even popcorn; the day we all anxiously wait for the states to light up in blues and red! Honestly, I don’t think all the cons mentioned could even equal up to that one pro; but some would probably disagree. So there are other pros too, being that the Electoral college symbolizes the very idea of Federalism. Not only that, but it has remained intact for all this time, why get rid of it now?. The Electoral college gives all states representation and can always be revised.

Overall, I think that the Electoral college among many other things makes our country what it is today. We can always revise and change it to be more appealing the general population. We can even make it similar to the concept of popular vote, but we shouldn’t completely dismiss it. I mean it wouldn’t be right to completely rule out what was created and shaped for us today. In a way it is symbolic of our country and its way of governing the people. I know it has its flaws and doesn’t work how some people would like it to at times. I also realize direct popular vote would be ideal, but I don’t know if I’d want any other way, from how it is today.