I was sitting quietly in the basement, trying to figure out where a mystery cold breeze was coming from. The house was sealed up for the winter yet the air was moving like a fan was on....
And I clicked on CNN's story: Shut the door on Trump by ending the Electoral College
All of a sudden, I was ready to fight.
So let me get this straight, Peniel E. Joseph, the only way you can stop Donald Trump in 2024 is to change the Constitution? The first line of your article lays down your premise: "America's electoral college, an institution rooted in racial slavery, must be abolished." The racist Electoral college is your angle? Peniel E. Joseph, let me explain history to someone who should know it.
The first presidential election, due to logistics, ran across 2 calendar years from 1788-1789. George Washington, as we were taught in first grade, became the first President of the United States. By Middle School, we learned about the electoral college and how this country is a Constitutional Republic. In that first election, Blacks couldn't vote.
CNN is reminding you of this fact in their OPINION piece. But let me help Peniel E. Joseph out from his sins of OMISSION. You know who else couldn't vote in that first election? Women of all colors. You know who else couldn't vote in that first election? Indians. You know who else couldn't vote in that first election? White Males who didn't own property. Peniel E. Joseph fails to mention that it took until the 1860's for non-property owning Whites in all states to secure the right to vote. Women didn't get that right until the 1900's.
So let me fix Joseph's glaring error in his first sentence, America's electoral college is an institution which controls the levers of leadership in a Constitutional Republic. There, I fixed it for you.
Now, the question becomes should we abolish the electoral college in order to stop Donald Trump? You don't scrap the electoral college because of one person. If people really want to get rid of the electoral college, fine, get together and get rolling on a constitutional convention. Not because of Trump, but because it would be good for the country.
The reason Donald Trump exists is because the Left is swerving into radical territory.
You cannot defund the police. The Green New Deal goes too far. Socialism is not the answer. If the Democratic Party governed from the middle, instead of the edges, Donald Trump would have been dirt in this election. But what happened was that the Democrats saw, in their eyes, a very flawed President and tried to push their extremist ideas into the mainstream.
But I'm feeling very generous today, so I'll tell you what, me and CNN are going to find some common ground here. We can get rid of the electoral college, through a Constitutional Convention, and, in return, we are going to defund the Democrat AND Republican parties.
Back to the first election in this country, George Washington was an independent. Washington advised American citizens to view themselves as a cohesive unit and avoid political parties. There are no guarantees of a two-party duopoly in the Constitution. So, starting with the next election cycle, all parties that poll at .5% are given a voice in debates from the local level all the way to the Presidential level. If you live and breathe Green policies, leave the Democratic party and join the Greens. Inversely, if you are about the Constitution instead of Populism, leave the Republican party and join the Libertarians. Your voices will be heard because the Democrats and Republicans won't be able to block them out. Every election this generation has been "too important" for third parties. With no electoral college and debates for all, there will be a cleaner path to victory for ALL parties.
In Israel's version of Congress, the Knesset, they have 13 different political parties that hold seats. I'm not saying that we should become Israel with coalition governments, what I'm saying is that the two parties in America, not guaranteed anything by the Constitution, need to lose their stranglehold on power and let Ideas dictate Parties instead of Parties dictating Ideas.
How 'bout that CNN? How 'bout we come up with solutions for what's best for America? How 'bout an opinion piece on how the 2 major political parties, with no roots in the Constitution, need to be defunded?
What? You like the idea about the Republicans being defunded, but not the Democrats because their work is more like the work you do?
And with that you understand how Donald Trump will linger around for another 4 years, like a gnat, because CNN is trying to change the mechanisms of Democracy to try to keep him from returning, just like Trump tried to change the rules to stay.
The Trump Show should be over.
CNN should be over.
They both love looking at themselves in the mirror too much to understand that they are each more of the problem than of the solution.