To begin, I would like to say that I am completely open to debate on this topic and that I am not really opposed to either way, in fact I would be anxious to hear people’s thoughts…
But, I took U.S. history this last year and college and they were talking about a time when the congress elected the president. Which I ended up thinking it may not be that bad of an idea. I would like to say there was a time when I wanted everyone to vote on everything, even on stuff congress and the senate did, people could just vote from home all the time. I have sense realized I may have been a bit over democratic in that, almost everyone has jobs and their lives, and can’t be expected to be that overly involved in politics. I’ll also add that I think company’s over a certain size should elect their president after the president or owner steps down or dies, but that is for another day. I love democracy!
So, the question is then…. how far am I willing to go in the other direction of democracy… Which with the congress thing, I didn’t think it was the worse idea that the congress people should be in charge of electing the president, we elect a congressman, they elect a president. In part because they are professional voter’s and if we do a good job electing them, should be the brightest and most trustworthy amongst us, that also represent our area’s majority viewpoint.
But, I think about how much congress people know that we don’t know, from military endeavors to scandals going on at the Whitehouse, they even know all the little gossip going around we will never hear about, top secret government information… Perhaps they may just be in a better position information wise to make a very good decision. Plus, given our current system, it may actually be more representative of the popular vote, because the states now are all or nothing in the electoral college. Letting the congress vote, would give the minority of given states more power as well.
Congressmen could still take a vote before an election to see how their area would like them to vote and take that into consideration. Overall, I feel we may think our vote counts for more and that we will also have a more personal relationship with the voting system, because it seems to make it feel more local.
A negative of course would be something like worrying about people threatening congressman to vote a certain way or something like that, with less votes counting for more, it centralizes power a little more and maybe make it easier to manipulate. Not that I don’t like having a vote in the election as well… I am more just curious what other people think.
Also, I have this idea for a more tiered voting system by age… where from like 18-25 your vote counts as 1, then from 25-35 it counts as 2, then from 36 on it counts as 3, or something like that. Give more say to the elders of the community with more life experience and wisdom. Also, very open about that idea as well.
So, to say again, I am not hard line either way on this topic, more just trying to start an interesting conversation… I think you can be overly democratic in certain ways, but then of course you don’t want to be under democratic… I am all for spreading power out as much as possible, just a matter of finding that right spot.
Something to think about anyways!
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