Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Mr. Baca Teaches a Lesson on Courage

 
On Monday, December 19th, I went down to the State Capital today to watch the nine electors for the State of Colorado cast their votes for for the US President.  Before it was over nine votes were cast for Hillary Clinton, but it was not without some drama.  You see, before the proceedings even took place, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams had stated that if any of the electors broke rank and decided to vote for a candidate other than HRC, they would be dismissed and replaced with someone who would. He even went so far as to draft a new oath for the proceedings to highlight the fact that if they did not vote for the person who won the popular vote that the person would be committing perjury.

Let that information sink in for a moment:  Williams, a Republican, interceded on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, who has not contested her loss, would have opposed the actions of SOS Williams even though it meant she would have received one less electoral vote.  

And then, up stepped a true American patriot. One brave, twenty-four year old, former  Marine Micheal Baca, stood his ground to defend his right to vote his conscience and proceeded to vote for Governor John Kasich. This was the first time that had happened in Colorado history.  Baca became the first electoral college voter to cast his ballot for someone other than for the winner of Colorado’s  U.S. Presidential contest. 

Despite his stand, Mr. Baca was admonished by Secretary of State Williams who then dismissed him as an elector and called for a replacement.  Almost as if it were planned (It was, by the way.), a volunteer, Celeste Landry, stepped up and was sworn in by Colorado Supreme Court Justice Nancy Rice. Williams did this as the huge crowd of citizen witnesses, (almost all of whom were Democrats who voted for Clinton), loudly demanded that he (Williams) either resign or face recall. 


Unless you understand the insider politics of the Electoral College, this all probably seems a bit odd.  What Mr. Baca was trying to do was to reinstate the notion that electors could remain unbound and vote for whomever they chose.  That was the way the Founding Fathers believed that the American people could keep a despot from stealing the office of the President.  When Colorado, or any state, binds its Electoral College delegates to vote in lock step with the popular vote of the state, it reduces the meaningfulness of the Electoral College vote to a useless charade.  Why even have the vote at all  if voters can only choose what has been chosen already?  This makes no sense whatsoever. And, if that is the case, why not scrap the thing all together? 

We have just witnessed an election where the loser won the popular vote by nearly a 3% margin.  I get it.  Hillary did not garner the electoral tally of 270 votes, and so she lost.  I am not saying give it to her, nor were the hundreds of people in attendance at the Capitol yesterday.  We all knew about the electoral threshold going in and HRC did not clear the mark.  

But what purpose does the Electoral College serve if we continue to strip electors of their choice to pick whomever they wish to become President of the United Stated? The Electoral College has become a tool for political strategists to undermine the popular vote…period. The will of the majority be damned.  Just find the right path to electoral votes and you do not even have to win the popular vote.  Lock the electors into having to vote "winner takes all" and it makes this a sure thing that cannot be challenged.  

I leave you with this final thought:  If we are going to continue to use this adulterated system of electing our United States President that has long strayed from its origins, can we at least make it entertaining?  What about dressing the electors in lavish costumes and have them sing outlandish show tunes during the ceremony.  At least we would be entertained once every four years.
 



 

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