The Electoral College

What is the Electoral College Anyway?

The View from the Middle

Wasn’t it just a few months ago that Democrats and Republicans alike where ridiculing Donald Trump for suggesting that the RNC change its primary election rules?  While these rules have changed through the years and are different by state, they have been in place “for years” according to Reince Priebus.  So, Trump was portrayed as a “whiney baby” who was just trying to change the rules of the game to his advantage. 

Now, we have Democrats ridiculing the general election process because Hillary Clinton won the nationwide popular vote but lost in the Electoral College.  I’m actually stunned that the hypocrisy is so thick and yet it goes undetected by the lamestream media.  Do these people think we have no videos, newspaper articles or even memories to refer to?  Before we talk about why Democrats want to terminate the Electoral College, let’s talk about what it is and why it was created.

The Electoral College is a collection of electors selected by the states to correspond with each state’s total of Representatives in the House and its two Senators.  That comes to 535 (435 House Reps and 100 Senators), but in 1960 the 23^rd amendment granted Washington DC the status of a state and thus three electors to bring the total to 538.  That’s why it takes a total of 270 electors to guarantee a candidate a majority and thus the Presidency.

If you read anything about the Constitutional Convention you realize that it was a very contentious affair.  Two of the biggest issues they debated were the balance of power between the state and federal governments and between big and small states.  The Founders, in their infinite wisdom, created two houses of congress, one based on population (the House of Representatives) and one with equal representation (the Senate). 

This configuration requires the federal government to be concerned about and work with all states and not just the big states to get things done.  The Electoral College is simply a manifestation of the same concept but expressed through an electoral process.

In the most current election, Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote by about 1.2 million votes.  She will win two states, California and New York, by almost five million votes.  That would mean that Donald Trump took the remaining 48 states by four million votes, which would be considered a landslide by most analysts. 

Do we really want to live in a country that can be so easily dominated by just two states?  New York and California account for almost 20% of the country’s population and they are extreme in their views and almost robotic in their voting habits.  A popular vote system would promote New York and California to positions of “capitals” and reduce the other 48 states to a status of colonies or districts.  If you throw Illinois and Massachusetts into the mix, which are similar in size and extreme partisan voting support, the Democrat party could control the entire country through just four states. 

So, if you live in one of the other 46 states, I would encourage you to read the book The Hunger Games to get a glimpse of what this “capitals” vs. “districts” relationship can evolve into.  New York and California would tell the people in Wyoming or Arkansas or Mississippi how to live and even think.  But, if you want to live in a country where every person in every state is free and considered important by our government, you will continue to support the Electoral College process.

Long live the “Flyover Country”.

Obama's Big Mistake

Obama’s Big Mistake

The View from the Middle

Back in 2009, Barack Obama was ushered into the White House with a 79-vote majority in the House of Representatives and a filibuster proof majority of 60 votes in the Senate when you include the two so called Independents who caucused with the Democrats.  He read this as a mandate by the people to embrace his far left ideology when it might have been more of a rejection by the people of the performance of a two term sitting President.  Sound familiar?  I don’t believe that George W. Bush deserves all the blame for the financial collapse of 2008, but he has to bear part of it.

Obama was confident.  I would say cocky.  He assumed that the world had fundamentally changed and that he would always enjoy the advantages he inherited.  So, he told Republicans to “drop dead” in three different ways during the first two years in office.  First, he humiliated John McCain, Eric Canter and John Boehner by telling them in a very public fashion that “elections have consequences, and I won”.  This would hardly be described as being magnanimous in victory.

During the mid-term campaigning in 2010, he gave speeches ridiculing Republicans.  He created an analogy that compared the US economy to a car in a ditch.  He suggested that he and the Democrats had dragged this car back onto the road with no help from Republicans.  You can argue the accuracy of the analogy, but the insult that followed was unnecessary.  In terms of moving forward, he said Republicans could, “come along for the ride, but they gotta sit in the back seat.”  As you can imagine, Black Republican leaders were particularly offended. 

Finally, not chronologically but in terms of the intensity of the rejection, President Obama passed his signature legislation, Obamacare, without a single Republican vote in either house of Congress.  In a bill that was close to 3,000 pages long, he couldn’t include one conservative compromise idea, like tort reform or selling insurance across state lines, to cobble together a few Republican votes?  This would have at least given some appearance of bipartisanship?

This hardline rejection of roughly half of America led to what Obama described as a “shellacking” in the 2010 midterms.  But he didn’t learn any lessons.  He proceeded to use Stalag Commandant Harry Reid to suppress any possibility of conservative ideas seeing the light of day in the Senate.  Republicans were allowed no bills to be debated and no amendments to Democrat bills.  Even as the ship was sinking, he would not seek consensus, which could have bailed him out.

Then, when he lost the Senate in the 2014 midterms, rather than reach across the aisle, he boasted that he “had a pen and a phone”.  He now planned to run the country as a monarchy through executive orders.  He has no compromise in his blood and this final attempt to dismiss the will of the people has cost him and his party the White House.

Now, he is about to learn a hard lesson.  In politics, if you run the country in a savagely partisan fashion and without any consensus, everything you put into place can be undone with the same stroke of a pen you used.  I get no joy out of writing these words, but I write them in the hope that Donald Trump won’t make this same mistake.

Mr. Trump inherits a similar situation to Mr. Obama’s.  While he doesn’t have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, he will find a more pliable minority opposition since 25 of the 33 Senate seats up for reelection in 2018 will be from the Democrat Caucus.  My hope is that Mr. Trump will reach out to the other side and find solutions that garner bipartisan support and will work for the American people.  Let me give you a few examples of some fertile compromise positions.

On immigration, the vast majority of Americans are in favor of better border security.  Mr. Trump should deliver on his campaign promise to secure our southern border, whatever that looks like.  Most Americans, if not all, are in favor of sending illegal alien felons back to where they came from.  Do it!  For the remaining, law-abiding Hispanic citizens (other than the fact that they are here illegally) we must offer them a path to legalization (not citizenship).  I wouldn’t even be so foolish as to suggest that they pay back taxes.  What a mess that would be.  They should pay a small fine, get legalized and then we can all put this nagging problem behind us.  Even a $100 fine would bring in a billion dollars, which we can put towards border security.

On Obamacare, there are some popular elements in the FCA.  I agree that the total law is a disaster waiting to happen, but as one of my old bosses used to say, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Term limits is another area where President Elect Trump can find broad consensus, if not with members of Congress, with the American people.  75% of Americans are in favor of term limits and a President Trump could use his bully pulpit to bully congressmen and women to support a constitutional amendment to impose limits on themselves.

There are other areas where there is bipartisan support.  My hope is that a new President Trump would not make the same mistake that President Obama did, and reach out to the other side of the aisle to bring Americans together and to move America forward.  Early signs are good, but we have a long way to go and many wounds to heal.

Promises Made, Promise Kept

Promises Made, Promises Kept

The View from the Middle

One of my old bosses at P&G, Tom Muccio, had a great adage that he frequently shared with us, especially when we were forecasting our sales.  He used to say, “The promise is the easy part.”  For those who shipped their quota’s he created an award called the “Promises Made, Promises Kept” award. 

Back before the election, there were many celebrities who promised to leave the country if Donald Trump won.  I want to take this opportunity to remind them of their promise and ask them to make good on it.  Promises made, promises kept, right?  You can help me by passing on this list to everyone you know so that we can remind the entire country of their promises.

Miley Cyrus – Maybe she can twerk in Canada with Justin Bieber.

Samuel Jackson – What’s in YOUR wallet?  Hopefully a passport.

Cher – Wants to move to Jupiter.  Not far enough for me.

Barbara Streisand – Has been promising to move since 1992.  Come on!  Need                  directions or something?

Amy Schumer – Wants to move to Mexico or Spain.  Well, Adios.

Whoopi Goldberg – Check out “The View” from France with its 75% tax rate.

George Lopez – I heard Mexico is looking for American actors.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg – She didn’t like the Constitution anyway.  Does New Zealand even have one?

Ali Wentworth and George Stephanopoulos – Maybe ABC could get some unbiased news reporting.

Al Sharpton – Pay your taxes first, and can you take your daughter with you?

What absolutely amazes me is the arrogance of these people.  Do they really think that the country would crumble if they leave?  Do they really think this threat changed any voter’s mind to vote for Hillary?  They were more likely to have created more Trump voters.

Please take your millions that you made from the freedom provided by this great republic and make good on your promises.  When you realize that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the world, you can negotiate with Trump on the terms of your return.

Why Trump Won

TRUXIT 

The View from the Middle

I’m sitting here on November 9^th watching the lamestream media struggling to understand what happened last night.  Their heads are spinning, but their brains just can’t comprehend the truth, so let me lay it out for them.  All they have to do is look at the recent Brexit vote in the UK and they will begin to understand.  There are many similarities.

First, while Brexit was not about a candidate, it was about sovereignty.  The everyday Brit was sick of having the European Union tell them what they should think and what they could do.  This was the issue that brought Donald Trump into the Presidential race.  Sovereignty!  Americans were tired of people coming into the United States illegally without the intent to assimilate.  We have borders for a reason.  We are a generous welcoming country, but we have the right to control who comes into our country and who doesn’t.  These people should add to our culture, not replace it and they should want to contribute to this great republic, not be a burden to it.

The second similarity is that the British people were tired of being called stupid, ignorant and bigoted just for having a difference of opinion.   In America, if you didn’t agree with the elite media or the establishment politicians or the snobs in academia, you were labeled a misogynist, a racist, a xenophobe or a bigot.  If you were concerned about border security or about defending the unborn or favored school choice you were viciously attacked as ignorant.  The American people and the Brits are both tired of the vitriol.  The common people of the world are speaking and they are sick of elitist rhetoric.

Here’s another paradigm busting fact.  Donald Trump won this election while fighting the lamestream media, the Democrat Party political machine and even some of his own Republican Party leadership, and he did it at a fraction of the cost.  Trump spent a third of the money Hillary did, and his campaign staff was one tenth of hers (70 vs. 700).  I don’t know about you, but I like this thrifty approach, especially when it also results in a victory.  We can only hope that “The Donald” can apply some of this frugality to our government’s spending addiction immediately.

Now, Trump must turn from campaigning to governing; so let me tell you what looks like a uniting, successful first year to me.  His first opportunity to begin the healing process will be with his cabinet picks.  I won’t go department by department, but this list should include at least a few women and maybe even a democrat or two. 

He will certainly shred a number of Obama executive orders that will take the government’s boot off the throats of big and small business alike.  That’s OK.  This isn’t an olive branch, but it’s expected.  Next, he should soften his plan on immigration.  The majority of Americans are in favor of border security, even if that manifests itself in a wall.  Most are also in favor of “sending the bad people back”.  There is, however, no way that we can round up eleven to thirteen million illegal immigrants and send them back to Mexico.  A pathway to legalization (not citizenship) for hardworking, law abiding Hispanics would not only be a positive for the country’s economy, but it would be an outreach to Latino voters, which is a must for the future of the Republican party.

He will have to appoint a Supreme Court Justice very quickly.  The world would be very OK with another defender of the constitution like Antonin Scalia.  He can always appoint a moderate, like Kennedy, when Ginsburg retires.  And retire she will in the next four years. 

Trump should also make some quick moves to stimulate the economy.  Tax reform will not only grow the economy but could begin to address our massive government debt.  He most certainly will allow companies to repatriate their profits with low or no tax penalty to invest here in the US.  And, can anyone say “Keystone Pipeline”? Duh! 

Finally, I would be very disappointed if he did not make good on his promise to begin the process to enact a 28^th amendment on Term Limits for the House and Senate.  This is an issue that over 80% of Americans support.  All of this would be a good start at uniting the country and making America great again.

There is a sad postscript to this post.  At the end of this long, grueling and often vicious campaign, Barack Obama made this election about him.  With the expectation that Hillary would cruise to a victory, he actually asked people to vote for Hillary for his legacy, and the results, unfortunately for him, will define it.  In 2008, the Democrat party delivered everything necessary for President Obama to succeed.  He controlled the House, had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and, of course he occupied the White House.    As he leaves in 2017, the Democrat party has lost all three.  This will not go unnoticed by history.