Posted on 08/15/2011 10:45:37 AM PDT by Aunt Polgara
National Popular Vote is good for conservatives, the GOP, and public policy. Period.
Having been active in support of the initiative for over a year now, I have met and talked to hundreds of conservative leaders, activists, and elected officials. I have found most of those who reflexively oppose it do so because they think it is a process to amend the Constitution, dont understand how it works or how it would affect outcomes, or are convinced of some grand conspiracy to turn America into a permanent Democrat hegemony.
The reality is the current system disenfranchises millions of conservatives from the process of electing the president, encourages pandering that transcends ideology (ethanol for Iowa, steel tariffs for West Virginia), and excludes 35 states from relevance in determining the Leader of the Free World.
National Popular Vote is not ideological. In fact, both sides of the divide have found reasons to support the plan. What else can explain the strange union of Tom Tancredo and (allegedly) George Soros?
But its complicated. Since conservatives, me included, think hell no! the first time they hear about it, it takes time to understand it and realize how much it helps our nations governance and our movements objectives. I have been in meetings with dozens of Republican legislators, spending hours going through how it works, constitutional history, Founders intent, and the impact it would have on the process.
Almost all of them begin the discussion opposed to the idea. After taking the time to learn more, Id say 80% leave supporting it. These policymakers were not brainwashed, but rather took considerable time to consider the plan on the merits.
The fact is, however, it takes 30 seconds to oppose National Popular Vote and 30 minutes to support it. In todays world, thats a tough sell.
National Popular Vote has been signed into law in California, unfortunately without the Republican support it deserved. A number of elected Republicans were subjected to threats and harassment for a bill considered to be a fait accompli, and it just wasnt worth the political capital to remain in support. Such is the hallmark of the California Republican Party: it is better to fight each other over anything than fight Democrats. It is this kind of intramural fratricide that has helped us become a party lacking any relevance whatsoever in public policy.
In 2008, California donors contributed $150 million to John McCain and Barack Obama. Of that, a mere $29,000 was spent in the state. Our irrelevance, as the largest state in the union and the 8th largest economy in the world, is terrifying. Look around our state and see what unchallenged liberal governance has gotten us.
Hows the economy doing? How about your tax bill? Making a lot of progress on protecting the unborn? Feeling a little bit safer with your concealed carry permit? Proud of Senate and Assembly Republicans impact on the FY12 budget?
What Republicans have been doing in California is not working. Forcing the RNC and our presidential nominees to commit to California and make the kind of infrastructural investment required to be competitive down ballot is critical to rebuilding our party. Absent that, I guarantee you the movement to moderate the GOP to be attractive to independents will only increase, leaving conservatives in the dust.
Our ideas are right and we should not abandon them.
They lost me when they used “California” and “GOP” in the same sentence.
(a) There is no California GOP.
(b) California’s contribution to the presidential election is an automatic 55 electoral votes for the democrat in the race.
(c) This isn’t going to change anytime soon.
What an awful idea! Stick with the Constitution. We certainly should have left the selection of Senators to the state legislatures, as the Founders established it, rather than allowing them to be elected by the people. This would be grossly compounding our errors.
This idea will work just great with our wide-open southern border and Libs welcoming illegals with every incentive under the sun!
We are a Republic - not a Democracy!
I highly doubt his own grandmother believes it.
What a crock!
Actually if anything it needs to start going the other way.
For example ages 25-65 can vote, veterans can vote, you can only vote for a congressman after living in the district for at least two years etc.
Too many cooks in the kitchen leads to terrible food.
I always wonder why the liberals are pushing this plan, rather than amending the constitution, since they want to get rid of the electoral college.
The rationale for the NPV is BOGUS - the states with the HIGHEST populations will get the MOST attention and reliably partisan states will be bypassed [AS THEY ARE NOW].
The ONLY fair method [and the ONLY one that puts the election on an equal footing] is the Congressional District method ...
In this method, EACH electoral vote [representing a Congressional district] in EACH state is given equal weight
by awarding the vote to the winner of the Congressional district ...
The remaining two votes within a state [representing the Senate seats] are awarded to the winner of the majority vote within the state as a “bonus” ...
In this manner, candidates [without a SNOWBALL’S CHANCE IN HELL of winning a particular state] WOULD be VERY ENCOURAGED to campaign within that state to garner individual district electoral votes ...
The true irrelevance is the millions of conservatives who live in California and are entirely powerless to stop any of the radical leftist agenda that is festering there.
CA conservatives need to do us all a favor and move to a battleground state where they will make a real difference. Leave Commiefornia to the illegals and leftists.
This will be a boon for urbanites, who are mostly liberal Democrats.
There could be some conservative candidates who choose to spend no money in the more expensive big markets and funnel all of their advertising to less expensive rural areas, but then that will just exacerbate the Red State / Blue State rift.
And how the heck do you handle a recount if the vote is close?
Yes, they certainly do want to get rid of that "pesky" electoral college, but they'll never be able to amend the Constitution because at least two-thirds of the states want nothing to do with it.
Hence, this stealth campaign to reinstitute "fairness" into our elections.
These people truly hate our country and our Constitution.
If they were all lined up and prepped to be shot for sedition, I would go buy popcorn.
We already tried that. It's called Colorado. You know, that once reliably conservative state (even the Democrats were conservative on most issues) that is now leaning liberal Democrat.
Be careful what you ask for ...
If this actually helped the GOP it would never be pushed by the dims. Granted the dims are stupid and it could backfire on them but if so they would do a 180 on this issue in a New York minute.
There are also constitutional concerns, should this ever go into effect. But, SCOTUS will not ever rule on this UNLESS electoral votes are ever awarded to the winner of the NPV - due to its “ripeness” doctrine ...
In general, SCOTUS has previously ruled that each state has a “plenary” right in the method of selection of its electors ...
BUT, SCOTUS has ALSO ruled that [once a state has granted its citizens the right to vote for electors] 14th Amendment Equal Protection applies AND that those rights CANNOT be infringed [such as countermanding the majority vote within the state] ...
Headed to Court - IF it ever happens ...
Since I live in Commiefornia, I don’t even need to think about who I would vote for President in 2012.
The decision has already been made for me...
I know this is radical in our day, but I believe the Founders set up a system where each congressional district voted for an elector who went to Washington and chose a president.
In essence, your congressional district chose the guy in their district they thought would best serve the nation as president.
Those electors gathered and chose the president from their number of outstandingly qualified electors or from other outstandingly qualified Americans.
I like that republican system better.
It brought us George Washington.
And when the popular vote goes Republican and he gets the Cali votes,California will want to know what that conservative administration can do for California.There will still be no GOP presences outside of the inland areas,no offense meant to anyone from San Diego.
Basically President Obama disappointed them by not giving them everything so now they’re throwing the towel.
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