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As I See It: Winners and losers

I find it extremely interesting to watch one political party that appeared to understand how to win presidential elections change its tune when it got beaten in 2016. The Democrats modeled the voting history in many key states, sometimes down to ...

I find it extremely interesting to watch one political party that appeared to understand how to win presidential elections change its tune when it got beaten in 2016. The Democrats modeled the voting history in many key states, sometimes down to the precinct level to make certain that even if they lost the popular vote, they would win the Electoral College vote.

There was only one tiny problem with that approach. Their analysis was correct, but it applied to the other party.

So now Hillary Clinton has once again declared herself the actual victor, even if she isn't really the president. And we are getting a fresh round of loyal disciples, acolytes and a few sycophants singing the old hymn that the archaic elector process has to go. It's funny how the Democratic Party has so much disdain for our founding fathers who were probably far wiser than they knew.

It's time for a short history lesson.

The Constitutional Convention considered several possible methods of choosing a president. Congress could choose the president, state legislators could choose the president or the president could be elected by the popular vote. All of these methods were debated at length and found to be unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons.

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Congress could have too much influence over the president and endanger the separation of powers. A few states could have too much influence over the president. The most populous states would always elect the president, and smaller states would have little to no influence in the process.

Finally, a "Committee of Eleven" at the Constitutional Convention proposed an indirect election of the president through a college of electors.

The idea was for the most informed and knowledgeable individuals from each state to select the president based on merit and without regard to the state of origin or political party.

This first iteration of the college lasted only four presidential election cycles. In 1800, Jefferson and Burr tied in the electoral vote, and Jefferson was elected in the House after 36 rounds of voting and political machinations that were supposed to be avoided.

This situation and the rise of political parties led to the 12th Amendment. At that time, electing a president by popular vote was not a serious consideration because of the logistics of voting in a mostly rural nation. George Washington strongly cautioned against allowing political parties, as they would have overriding influence on the political process. But the 12th Amendment solidified the presence of parties. And we can see the results today.

Another reason at that time for not considering presidential election by popular vote may have been the excesses of the French Revolution wherein France rapidly degenerated into a brutal, anti-Catholic dictatorship.

A true democracy requires a knowledgeable, well-informed electorate. Given the propaganda found in all segments of the major media outlets and social media today, this requirement cannot be met.

Add to that the vulnerabilities of our technology to hacking, intrusion, manipulation and other associated factors - who is going to really trust the results?

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In my opinion, while Hillary Clinton may have won the popular vote, she ended up a victim of her own growing unpopularity. With her disdain for us "deplorables" and her cavalier attitude concerning the victims of the Benghazi diplomatic mission attack, she likely changed the views of enough people on the fence and lost the votes that could have carried her to an Electoral College win.

As rough as it is today in our country, I shudder to consider the secular progressive dictatorship we would have if she had won!

That's the way I see it.

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