Volume 4, Issue 51
On the weekend talk shows, the debate raged about Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointments, Russian interference in the elections, and states being emboldened to take back their states’ rights authority. One commentator went so far as to suggest that tradition was just as important as the law.
Incredible!
If tradition was the rule of the day, we would still be implementing the protocol of a British colony. Have they forgotten the words of the Declaration of Independence demanding our rights?
“– That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Intellectuals can add value in steering a national course. But, it is in the lordship of their elitism that they diminish their contribution.
Today is the official day for the ceremonial activity of America’s Electoral College. It is the day that the Electors convene at the fifty state capitals and the District of Columbia to cast their votes for the next President of the United States. Electors are allocated to each state by the number of U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators. The College’s authority is established by Article Two, Section One of the Constitution as amended by the 12th Amendment. The original and current purpose of the Electoral College system is to provide election balance between states with large populations and states with lesser populations. Some talking heads have tried to make the case that the Electors should vote their conscience and not support the people’s decision.
The Electoral College has just cast 270+ votes for Donald J. Trump to become the 45th President of the United States. They have honored the founding principles of the United States in so doing.
Why?
Because, to share power among distinct states requires a balance of power for the pursuit of cultural ideas, and therefore happiness.
Among the original thirteen colonies, and thereafter the states of the United States, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts dominated America’s population. In a popular vote election, the rural states would never win an election on a parochial issue. This is more important than just the balance of a general election popular vote.
The United States of America is a republic comprised of sovereign states. America is not a democracy in the purest sense. Every citizen does not vote on every issue. We as Americans elect representatives to Congress who then vote on issues for the common good of the entire republic. In 1789, in an effort to strengthen the confederation of states, the Constitution struck a balance between the rights of the federal government, the rights of state government, and the collective cultural vision. This respect for different cultural viewpoints is embodied in the Bill of Rights and our entire electoral system. The cords that bind us as a republic provide not only the flexibility, but the protection of states’ rights and viewpoints.
It is consensus opinion that the Founding Fathers never intended for Electors of a College to overrule the will of the people. It was to be more of a ceremony to confirm the electoral count of the states. If in fact this had been the case, they would have been appointed by the governor and confirmed by an elected body. They would have been vetted for special interests or questionable backgrounds. The position of an Elector was meant to be a position of honor to carry out the conclusion of the exercise of democracy.
Change was never a consideration for overruling the will of the people. Nothing that Donald Trump has suggested or acted upon is against a state law, federal law or the Constitution. He is simply representing possibly the purest change of the American role of government since our country’s Declaration of Independence from the government of Great Britain.
By what principle or eternal rule of natural law do we conclude that this change, pursuant to Constitutional imprimatur, is of less value than our Declaration of Independence in 1776?
Confidence should be rendered that in this election decision, the American people heard every argument, absorbed every criticism, and reflected on the future.
In the people’s confirmation of change, the media, intellectuals, and elected officials should be engaging in all dialogue on the basis of how and by what mechanisms to achieve the people’s decision.
We are a great nation, founded on the governing principle “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
These rights are not to be diluted, second-guessed, or redefined by any person for anyone else. They are individual rights and they belong to us individually. The Electoral College has confirmed the 2016 election by respectfully casting their votes in accordance with their states’ election results. In this commitment, they have honored the Spirit of 1776.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?