A Season for Change
stu...@csub.edu
As this is being written the great question of who will win the
Presidency in 2001 is still undecided. This is written because,
however it is decided, the fact remains that the result, while perhaps
legislatively and constitutionally conclusive, is still a result
which is democratically inconclusive. No honest Citizen can say
otherwise.
Our Constitution was conceived and organized more than 200 years ago. At
that time our political constitution was put on a
foundation which put a certain amount of healthy distance between the
restless tides of democratic whim and the careful
deliberations which are needed by government and administration. One
example of this was the election of the Senators, a
matter which was left to the Legislatures of the States. But since the
early 20th Century (1913), out of the first Progressive Era
of our Republic's History, by virtue of Amendment XVII to the
Constitution, Senators have been elected by popular vote.
According to Article II of our present Constitution, the Election of the
Chief Executive, the President of all the states united,
was left to a College of Electors appointed by the Legislators of the
States, and thus a College which expresses the federated
sovereignty of these States. This institution which is called the
Electoral College has been criticized as obstructive of the
democratic will and has been proposed for abolition on numerous
occasions. What this writer here proposes is not an abolition
of the Electoral College inasmuch as it is indeed an expression of the
sovereignty of the States, but a sensible modification
which will allow for the airing of more diverse opinion both
conservative and progressive. It renders in the present and for future
occasions of this kind, a more conclusively and satisfyingly democratic
resolution of the present impasse.
This political Notice calls upon the Citizens of this Republic to
request from its leaders an Amendment to the Constitution which
expands the scope of the deliberations of the Electoral College so that
it be empowered to schedule a Run-off Election
between the appropriate candidates whenever, as in the present instance,
the democratic electorate shall indicate a situation
where one would be appropriate--as in the present situation. In the
present situation we have a popular vote which favors one
candidate and an Electoral vote which seems to favor another.
Because the magistrates, the politicians, and the advisors involved all
have their various interests bound up in
already-established protocols and in personal and institutional
commitments, and because many of them are officers of the
Constitution sworn to uphold that Constitution, it is not within their
responsibility --or only weakly so--to propose the sort of
Amendment which is here proposed. Therefore, it falls to the People--who
are the True Constitution, as the Framers of the
Constitution would strenuously insist to us--to proclaim, acclaim and,
as necessary, clamor and demonstrate for, an
Amendment which, though simple, sane and modest in its provisions, is,
as has been said, outside of the responsibility of our
elected leaders to propose.
Here is the text that is proposed, being an Amendment of the
Responsibility entrusted to the Electoral College established by
our Constitution in the Second Article thereof:
1) Whenever the plurality of votes shall favor one candidature while the
electoral vote shall favor another, any
member of the College may motion for a Run-off Election which shall be
between the two candidates receiving the
most votes. A Run-off shall be scheduled whenever at least 20% of the
Electoral College shall so agree. If 20% of
the Electoral College fails to agree the President shall be elected by
the Congress of the United States.
2) Whenever there shall be an interim in the Presidency for the reason
given in this Amendment the Presidency
shall be filled by the previous incumbent; and in the case of absence of
the previous elected incumbent or
incumbents, the Presidency shall be filled for the interim according to
the provision of Congress.
3) The Electoral College shall schedule the Run-off Election so that the
President-elect may be inaugurated into
office before the end of the second week of March. The President shall,
as provided for already, be elected by a
majority of the Electors from each of the States.
4) This Amendment shall govern the presidential contest celebrated in
November of the year 2000 and all future
such contests.
I boldly invoke the Citizens of this Republic to put off their false
cynicism and devote themselves to a season of unity for the
sake of progressing towards a more sincerely peaceful union. Arm
yourselves--not with arms--but with a calm determination
which by your numbers and spirit cannot fail to reinvigorate the
politics of this nation if you will only allow yourselves the simple
sincerity and firmness which is needed to effect this mild
transformation. Know that your elected representatives must be made
conscious of our united determination to effect a more perfect union, a
union slightly more perfect than that which our
Forefathers bequeathed to us. Know that Congress must approve this
Amendment (which would be the 28th) by a two-thirds
vote. And know that then 38 legislatures of the states must then approve
it by a majority of their members. But remember that
given our modern communications and rapid transportation that it is not
impossible for this work to be drafted, deliberated and
enacted in a very short span of days or weeks. And remember that our
leaders may experience qualms and inertia for any of
many various reasons to which they are only naturally heir to, given the
profession of political leadership to which they have
chosen to lend the honor of their labors. In replying to this inertia
remember Fellow Citizens that you have one very potent
discouragement--you can withhold your money from the Government until
our leaders shall have enacted the very mild reform
herein proposed.
Fellow citizens, please reflect that there are many pious-sounding
commentators who will take it as their job the deflecting of
the People from their simple purpose and that for this and for many
other reasons, (not the least of which is the reason that we
do not desire too-great a disruption of our day-to-day affairs) We the
People must devote themselves to a brief season of
self-disciplined single-mindedness. Can we do this? Or have we become a
People among whom the only ones with
self-discipline are the Soldiers and a few monks? We can look at
ourselves briefly, at the tasks of business and society and
family which we have entered into and immediately commend ourselves
affirmatively in this. Therefore, I confidently commend
you to this important celebration and manifesting of your democratic
voice. The more calm-minded and single-minded you are
towards this moderate reform the less anyone will have to say against
it.
Finally, let all the people, both the "masses" and the politicians now
at contest, all together, recognize that a Run-off Election
does not necessarily destine the victory of one candidate over the
other. In a Run-off Election for President, the ballot,
presumably, would be a very simple one; and a somewhat different
electorate would presumably be hiking to the polling
booths. Furthermore we should all remember that neither of the two major
candidates is entirely the Prince of Darkness as has
been painted by their opposition.
It is not important who writes this but my signature follows,
JF Nesbit