Electoral College Vs. Popular Vote

Statistics play an extremely vital role when predicting trends. Not that statistics are the “be all end all” of explaining everything, but you can be sure that if a sports team has had a historic trend of losing, place your bets against them. Kind of like the annual disappointment every Detroiter feels about the Detroit Lions. Another measure of knowing trends and predicting end results is when a system is in place that people shouldn’t be too surprised about, which is the election cycle.

How It Works

The American government is a congressional representative system that relies on any given population to vote in legislators and senators through ballots. The amount of said representatives is contingent upon the density of the population. Yet even in this, there is a check (as in checks and balances) in place so that one state does not have more sway during presidential elections, which is why the Electoral College is so important. Popular voting is mob mentality which is the truest definition of a democracy which is ultimately mob rule. It’s the reason why Hillary Clinton lost because she lost the electoral votes. Which is why you have swing states which change year to year and it is important to not just campaign in New York or California, but Wyoming, Iowa, and Idaho are equally important to the Union. Otherwise, all any candidate needs to do is campaign in the most densely populated areas and win every election.

We Got the Macro, Now the Micro

Just as much as we focus on the large scale political structure it is equally important that we pay attention local just as much. It is the mayors, sheriffs, school board presidents, and city council officials that have just as much sway in our lives as do our national politicians. We have been seeing an uptick in these little tyrants running around exerting power that we the people didn’t really vote them in for.  Yet, the irony is we are the ones who are in charge of our government.  The city officials are those we voted in. If you don’t like your government, ironically, it is your fault because you voted these folks in.

A great example of the change people don’t want to see is in Georgia’s 5th District as former civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis held his seat 17 times and Fulton County is so disjointed in terms of how people are living. Yet, congressionally, it’s the people’s fault for not seeing the change they want to see because they voted for him. On the flip side, the citizens of Georgia decided that Brian Kemp is to be their governor but the people of Atlanta decided on Keisha Lance Bottoms, and well, based on her Instagram content, she’s displaying more and more dishonest points of data regarding corona virus that holds no context and essentially treats her constituents like idiots. All this while she demoralizes Atlanta Police Department while decrying violence that took the life of Secoriea Turner this past Fourth of July weekend. Yet this is who Atlanta voted to be their mayor. Michigan has been a blue state for the longest time because people there continually vote in that direction even though ironically in and of itself, Trump won Michigan in 2016.

A Look in the Mirror

Throughout the union, local government officials have been the loose cannons infringing upon the general populace. The sad part here is that it is the general populace that voted in these undemocratic charlatans who sit on their thrones and elitist towers while making lives miserable for their citizens. If 2020 has revealed anything is that we the people need to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “What do we want?” because rather than vote party lines just to sit at the table, we need to ask what will be good for us and our future and who do we want that will most reflect that. If change is what many are seeking, then career politicians need to take a boot since they haven’t done anything in decades.  Yet, just as much as we can’t stand career politicians, we shouldn’t tolerate local mayors and city councilmen who also do everything else but represent their voting block. Voting these people in is necessarily a “My bad…” and we would do well to remember that if we don’t like what we see in our government, we only have ourselves to blame.