RE: Republic

[Bob Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com>]

At 12:19 PM 12/21/2000 -0800, Stephen Cooke wrote:
>Bob,
>         Does a person have to be anti-democracy to support the electoral 
> college?

No.  I don't think I made that case.

>Democracy is not just one structure. Isn't the electoral college just a form
>of democracy, i.e., a two stage process that takes geography into account.

There are many, many forms of "democracy," depending on how you want to 
define it.  Most Western "democracies" have neither an Electoral College 
nor direct presidential (head-of-state) elections.  I have merely been 
saying that some parts of our representative democracy are antiquated, and 
that we could form A More Perfect Union with some changes.

If we were to abandon the electoral college, we would still have strong 
geographic representation in our political system.  (We would only be 
shedding the weakest, and most inappropriate, form thereof.)  We would have 
legally constituted cities, counties, and states, with many powers left to 
the states under the constitution.  The U.S. Senate and the House of 
Representatives provide geographic representation on the national level 
(with the Senate providing strong guarantees that "small" states are not 
disrespected).

I've yet to hear someone make a concrete case for how, in our modern 
political arena, the Electoral College protects states rights.  While it 
may have been designed with this in mind, I haven't seen any evidence to 
that effect.

>No big whoop usually.

I think we look for a little more confidence in our electoral process than 
"usually" getting things right.


Bob Hoffmann
846 Mabelle St.
Moscow, ID  83843

Tel: 208 883-0642
Fax: 877 495-2279