An Anonymous Reply Part 3

This is Part 3 of yours truly trying to go over a letter that someone wrote regarding their stand for amendment 36 and countering what I said in an online piece from the CSU-Pueblo Today website. This amendment would do away with a winner take all in Colorado in regards to the electoral college votes. To refer to it click this link.
http://www.colostate-pueblo.edu/today/live_viewStory.asp?documentID=525

Now as Han Solo said to Luke Skywalker "Your all clear kid now lets blow this thing and go home."

McCullen then claims that if we did away with the electoral college,
populous areas such as New York City and Los Angeles would determine who
heads our country "time and time again". What he fails to mention is the
fact that the 3.7 million people in the city of Los Angeles (2000 Census)
and the 8.1 million people who live in the five boroughs of New York City
(2000 Census) equal the population of West Virginia, Rhode Island, Wyoming,
South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Delaware, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine
and New Hampshire combined (2000 Census). Is McCullen suggesting that the
vote of these two cities should not matter? Their combined populations equal
that of 12 states, to suggest that there vote should not have at least some
pull in the popular vote is confusing to say the least.

Great argument, the writer consolidates several states to match the population of NYC and LA. That does not mean a thing. The candidacy will to have to make to make NYC, LA and heavily populated areas top priority. These rural states 'alone' will likely be left out in the cold. The candidates are not going to waste time going to these states under a popular vote system. You have to treat Alaska, Idaho, Maine as different areas.

Next McCullen claims that New York City and Los Angeles are considered to
be meccas of liberalism, adding that those in the entertainment industry
generally support the Democratic party. The 2000 census places the
employment of those in the arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation
and food service industries at just under 177,000. The actors and film
makers so feared by McCullen and similar writers aren't even populous enough
to have their own employment category. They are forced to share it with
artists, musicians, theme park employees, boat tour operators, and waiters.
By no stretch of the imagination could a logical person make the claim that
the portion of the 177,000 persons working in the arts, entertainment,
recreation, accommodation or food service industries in the city of Los
Angeles in any way swing the vote of the entire 3.7 million person community
of Los Angeles, thus manipulating the vote of the entire nation. This
doesn't even take in to consideration McCullen's illogical claim that most
or all person in entertainment vote Democratically. Instead of researching
this point he is assuming that because the detractors of Bush in the
entertainment industry are more vocal, they must be more populous.

It is still a different culture than the heartland. Sure they maybe more to life than the entertainment machine and all that jazz (give my regards to Chicago). People that grow up in city life have a different viewpoint about how life is like in rural America. In fact in the movie "Mean Girls" kids that are homeschooled in the heartland are seen as gun tort'n, uneducated kids. It was meant to be an insult to a culture that the elite can't and likely will not understand. Once again people that live in these major metropolitan will have the upper hand in choosing our President.

McCullen then laments the "poor liberals" saying that the sparsely
populated states such as Colorado were given a say in the vote, despite
their wishes otherwise. Half of Coloradans weren't given a say. Over 2
million of us voted for Gore but that wasn't reflected in our state's
electoral vote. Colorado, at 4.3 million people (2000 Census) is not a
"sparsely populated" state. But it does only have one third of the
population of New York City and Los Angeles combined. Yes, Colorado should
have a say, but only as much as it has people.

McCullen then admits that had an Amendment like 36 been passed four years
ago, Al Gore would have been our president. Yes, once again, if more people
select a certain candidate, he should be awarded the office. This seems to
be a very obvious idea.

...and that is what is driving this push for this Amendment. They think they it might give Kerry the leverage he needs. But that is not a given. In part 2 I linked a piece from the Boulder Daily Camera that says that Bush could win under this new system.

The next point made in the article is that Nebraska and Maine, all though
they have dropped the "winner takes all" approach to the electoral college,
they still hand out electoral votes based on who wins each congressional
district and then two additional votes to the overall winner. This is still
not a democratic system. The minority voters in each congressional district
are still lost and their voices are not heard. Someday, we can hope that
these states will listen to their citizens and vote accordingly, eventually
it would be nice to do away with the electoral college. Until then, we can
vote for a true democratic system here in Colorado and hope that states will
follow.

What will be good for this writer is to do away with the Electoral College system altogether. Even this writer is not happy with the new system in Nebraska and Maine. The 'minorty' is not being heard after all.

McCullen finally ends his article with his main point. If the electoral
system were to become more fair in the state of Colorado, candidates would
stop campaigning here. What a powerhouse argument. Sure your vote means
absolutely nothing and was a complete waste of your time and energy, and you
were lied to that every vote counts, but at least candidates still come and
campaign here, even though it doesn't matter what you think about them or
their policies.
The point cannot be stressed enough. Your vote currently does not count.
But go ahead and vote with good faith this November, if you choose the
candidate you want for president and vote yes on Amendment 36, your voice
just may be strong enough to force the electoral college to listen to you.
It doesn't matter if we choose one candidate or the other, what matters is
that we stop letting the electoral college choose for us.

Overall I am not a big expect in the Electoral College system but I do have faith that the founders knew what they were doing when they developed this way of electing our President. They see the results of Pure Democratic system and felt that it would not work. As Alexander Taylor says in his book from 1770 book "Cycle of Democracy."

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a louse fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world's great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."

It is like the old children's game of Buck Buck. The more kids you have on the 'horse' the likely chance that the 'horse' will break. When you have people that know they can vote for more money from the treasury they will do it, and eventually the government will break. When that happens that will open the doors for someone that will be their 'savior' and the people will follow that person, and very likely this person will rule with an iron fist.

Again Democrats and Republicans alike call for a no vote on 36. If you advocates want to rid us of the electoral college than you need to go to the national level and debated their, and next time if you want another 36. Please do it in Cally, Texas, New York or anyplace that has a lot of electoral votes thank you very much.

Also if this writer is a Youthful Idiot or an older Useful Idiot...take course in America government and American History. Don't want to do that then find some good books about our government.