The Constitution Sucks!
2004-10-05 09:31 - General
Let me begin by saying that in the grand scheme of things, The Constitution is actually a wonderful document that is responsible for maintaining some great things that are important to this country. But, it does suck, there's big problems with it.
First and foremost is that it is The Constitution and it has an almost holy status. It is big and bad, and it is the thing that holds our country together, it is revered. It is above change or review. Even though it's got amendments, and the amendments have amendments, I don't think it will ever again. But it needs them, bad.
This was brought on by a discussion at work yesterday about the presidential race, the mess that the last one was, and the big mess that the electoral college is. Perhaps, maybe, long ago when the constitution was new, the electoral college made sense. It was probably a really good way to manage the technical challenge of counting votes coming from so many people over so wide an area with such little technological aid. Today though, it's just an arbitrary way to round off the numbers that makes votes feel less worthwhile.
My current state, New York, has 31 electoral college votes. If 5 million New Yorkers vote for candidate A, and 5 million and one vote for candidate B, then candidate B gets 31 electoral college votes. If one New Yorker votes for candidate A and ten million vote for candidate B, then candidate B gets 31 electoral college votes. Seem skewed? It does to me. It's a big example of things that made some sense over 200 years ago when it was written, but has no good reason to continue in the current day, besides tradition, and the sacred nature of the document it happens to be written in.
Another major, major issue is gun control. The second amendment guarantees that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It says that this is because "a well regulated militia [is] necessary to the security of a free state." Well, buddo, I don't care how many gun nuts carry their death sticks around with them, they're not protecting our country. They're contributing to the US having, by orders of magnitude, the highest gun murder rate in the world. The second amendment is the only decent argument anyone makes for the general population posessing guns. How come we can't pull another amendment 21, and repeal the second amendment?
2006-10-16 05:15 - Gerry157
The electoral college was written into the Constitution to equalize the power between the larger and smaller states. That need still exists. If based on the popular vote alone, then 3 states - California, New York and Illinois - would decide who the next president will be.