Tag: Election

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My Vote Doesn’t Count, or Does it?

election-mapIt’s becoming a trend…well, ever since the 2000 election. All day, yesterday I saw posts on Facebook and heard people say, “My vote doesn’t count!” Or, “The electoral process is broken” in reference to the United States’ use of the Electoral College versus a popular vote. It is perceived that because a candidate MAY win the Electoral College but lose the “popular” vote that some voting injustice has taken place or that the system is broken. That is not true and in fact four five U.S. Presidents have won the Electoral College while failing to win the popular vote. A quick fact and then a quick explanation as to how your vote actually DOES count in the electoral college process:

FACT: We are not a democracy, we are a representative republic. A democracy utilizes a federal popular vote to decide elections, policies, etc. Our country is a collection of states (the United States) and as a republic we choose representatives that are supposed to make policies on behalf of the people within their states.

WHY YOUR VOTE MATTERS: First, democracy does not work and our founding fathers were very wise in understanding this. Democracy paves the way for mob rule. If elections were decided based on a federal popular vote, states that have a larger population like California and New York would have disproportionate influence and would essentially make all of the decisions for the entire country since they have larger populations. If the country was not a collection of states and was one group of people with identical laws governed by federal rulers, the larger populated areas would yield no greater power than another. For example: California has a population of 37.7 Million people and New Hampshire has 1.3 Million people, that is a huge difference when it comes to deciding important issues such as the presidency.

Second, your vote does matter! Your state utilizes a popular vote along with the electoral college. Whatever candidate wins the popular vote for your state wins the appointed electors. Each state has a specified number of electoral votes based on their population. This is why New York has 29 electors and Wyoming has 3. It’s not disproportionate for Wyoming voters, rather it is proportional for the number of citizens they have within their states population. Everyone says that the battleground states are what decide elections, but that’s only half true. If George W. Bush had not won West Virginia (5 votes) or New Hampshire (4 votes), he would not have won the Presidency in 2000.

RECAP: 1. A democracy would utilize a popular vote resulting in more votes from larger populated areas. Presidents and national issues would be decided by the larger populated states. Democracies are vulnerable to being hijacked by mob rule. Democracies cannot and do not work for a system built on state’s rights 2. A republic uses a representative system which allows those states to elect our President based on the population of that state. Those representatives vote based on the popularity vote of that state. Your vote matters in determining who your state casts their vote for. This system has worked for 236 years…in fact it worked this year with President Obama winning both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote…and it will continue to work in the future.

UPDATE: Donald Trump was just elected as the 45th President of the United States. He did so by winning the Electoral College 306 electors to 232 electors, but losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton (currently) 59,938,290 to 59,704,886. The narrative has once again hit news cycles and social media platforms complaining that the Electoral College system is broken, outdated, and needs to go away. Please save your time, it’s not going anywhere! This is the system of a representative republic. To maintain state’s rights, the electoral college isn’t going anywhere. Unless the country was fundamentally changed from a representative republic to a democracy, the electoral college isn’t going anywhere! Colorado loves their recreational marijuana and California loves their gun control. That is the beauty of state’s rights. It is what makes the United States unique and exceptional. My feeling is, the people who are sad, angry, and upset that Hillary Clinton lost and Donald Trump won are reviving this issue as a means to cope with their bad news. I do not write this in support or defense of President-elect Trump; I did not vote for him or Clinton and have a neutral voice. I write this for information and educational purposes. This is basic U.S. history and government facts. The electoral college is good and right for the United States. It’s not going anywhere.

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The Ronald Reagan Library

After my airline ticket was purchased for the Gathering my uncle moved from L.A. back to Atlanta, so I got stuck in California for a couple of extra days alone. My friend Tom suggested that I go check out the Reagan Library, so I did. Reagan was my President. He was in office from the time I was born until I was 8 years old, and what a great President he was. I was blown away by this place, it is not ultra exciting as it is a museum of sorts, but the videos, the pictures, the letters, and the audio of Reagan playing throughout the building are awesome! The historical items they have on display are very cool. I got to see the very x-ray taken when Reagan was shot. I walked away thinking to myself three thoughts: #1 Reagan was a great leader, #2 Reagan loved his wife, and #3 Reagan loved this country…even if it was at the expense of losing popularity in the world. If you ever get an opportunity…go see it! Semi Valley is beautiful and when you look out at the land surrounding the library, it helps put into perspective how BIG God is and how small we are.

One final personal note. Neither one of our Presidential candidates could stand toe to toe with Reagan. I know McCain likes to say he is a foot soldier in Reagan’s army, but Reagan would probably disagree. On the other hand, if you are an Obama supporter, Reagan would eat your candidate for lunch and still need dessert. The words of Reagan echoing through this Library are powerful, and I could not help but to think how much trouble we will be in if Obama is elected. I will do a post in the coming days about a great story I heard from one of the videos that I watched at the Library, its powerful. Until then, check out the photos below. They are not the greatest as they are from my cell phone camera (Nicki would not let me take her camera). If you click the photo for a second time it will expand into a larger photo.

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Politics and Blogging

I am not blogging today. I just don’t have it in me. There is a lot on my mind, but its a friday off.

I am excited about Sarah Palin being selected as John McCain’s running mate. I think there is more excitement about her than there is for John McCain himself. Anyway, I am working on some political posts. I have remained silent for most of the political season here on my blog. I am not in a position where I cannot promote my political ideals, so I am going to, because I am tired of not saying what I believe. I would much rather blog about what actually makes a difference in people’s lives and that is Christ’s church, but its election season so I am going to make a few brief detours.

So, if you are looking for some blog fun today and want to express some of your political thoughts, go to the Waxy One’s Blog and share what your one platform would be if you were elected President. Click HERE to go there.

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Vetted

You probably only hear the word, vetted, every 4 years. Wikipedia’s definition is this: Broadly, vetting is a process of examination and evaluation. Specifically, vetting often refers to performing a background check on someone before offering them employment. In addition, in intelligence gathering, assets are vetted to determine their usefulness.

On Saturday, as soon as Barak Obama chose his running mate, Joe Biden for the coming election, the pundits immediately started sharing their opinion’s about his choice. Some were praising the choice, while others started questioning whether or not Barak properly vetted Joe Bidden. Why all of the questions? Well, Joe Bidden has a history of saying things that are not so popular or proper. He made what could be considered as racist remarks about Obama, saying he was the first ‘clean’ ‘articulate’ African American in contention for the democratic parties nomination, he said that ‘you have to have a little Indian accent to go into a Seven-Eleven convenient store…I’m not kidding,’ as well, he point blankly said that his now running mate was lacking the experience needed to be President and that the office of President was not the place for ‘on the job training.’ Biden later blasted Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience and comments he made concerning Pakistan and Iran. The fear for democrats who support the election of Barak Obama is that something will come out about Biden or that he will say something that could potentially ruin Barak’s chances of being elected.

What if, John Edwards was the chosen running mate for Barak Obama, and Obama chose to select Edwards as his running mate 1 month ago? The experts this weekend were saying that some candidates are not vetted as much as others because they have already been vetted as Presidential candidates, therefore they feel that Biden may have had less vetting than someone who did not run for President this year, but what if the same process had been taken with Edwards? The recent news about Edwards’ affair would have sunk Obama’s ship, as would any issues with Biden if they were to come about.

As I was running the other night, I could not help but to think, have I been vetted? Have I vetted myself? Is there anything in my life that if it were discovered would potentially embarrass my God, my family, my church, or my employer? You are probably familiar with the situation with Michael Guglielmucci, who was made famous quickly with his song Healer and the story that went a long with it. However as Michael quickly stepped into the spotlight he started getting vetted, and it was found that Michael had something in his life that did not match up with the character of the Lord he sang about. Brad had a great post HERE concerning the story, and this post is not to cast criticism on Michael because we all have sin in our lives and we have all failed, though our failures at times fall on different levels. This post is to point out that when we don’t vet ourselves and allow Christ to vet us by examining our inner most secret areas, someone will, and in the end Christ will take a hit, our families will take a hit, our churches will take a hit, our friends will take a hit, Christianity will take a hit, and we will lose all credibility and trust we have ever gained.

Join the Conversation: Have you vetted yourself lately? Most importantly, have you allowed Christ to vet you lately?

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Young Voters, Please Stop Playing!

I believe that everyone who has the priviledge to vote should. It is one of the greatest responsibilities we have in this country. This article is not a Pro-McCain or a Pro-Obama article, its purpose is not to sway voters to one camp or the other, however I do want to point some foolishness out that is driving me crazy and it has great potential to cause harm to the future of our country for our kids.

It just happens that the biggest group of culprits have outwardly and publically supported Barak Obama. A majority of young voters that I have heard from take our priviledge of voting as a joke, yet they are voting between two candidates who will have a huge opportunity to make policies and to elect judges that will be in place for the next 30+ years. Some of the laws and policies that are put into place may not have an immediate effect on those who are voting in this election cycle, but my kids will definitely benefit from them or suffer because of them in the years to come. When I step into the voting booth I no longer have just myself to think about, but now I have 3 children and a future of grandchildren that will be directly effected by the two candidates that we are voting for in 2008.

So young voter, I urge you, before you vote, please do your homework and take this responsibility serious. Over the last several months and during the primaries I have grown more and more aggravated with what I am hearing, here are a few quotes from young voters:

“I am voting for Barak Obama because he is hot.”
“We are voting for John Edwards because we like his hair.”
“I am voting for Barak Obama because that’s who my parents said they are voting for.”
“Did you hear Barak Obama’s speach? I am voting for him.”

All of these sound like great leadership principles that will benefit our country. Within those thoughts lies the answer, I reckon, to balance the budget so my kids do not have to pay back China for our generation’s debts. I can clearly hear the answer to lowering energy cost in those quotes. Within each of those statements I can hear exactly the kind of Supreme Court Justices the candidates will put on the bench. Don’t you see all of those important policy issues within those statements? It aggrivates me that not one of these voters had children, yet they are playing with my children’s future. These are not 18 year olds by the way, some were as old as 25 and they acted as if they could care less about the process, they just wanted to vote for who was cool. I would give the same criticisms to anyone voting for John McCain for some of the same foolish reasons, so far I have not heard statements as ridiculous, maybe its because he is not attracting a lot of younger voters who think in these terms?

“Sean Hannity did a “Man on the Street” Session not too long ago. Now regardless of your thoughts on Hannity, there is one thing for certain, he asks fair questions to perfect strangers about who they are voting for and why they are voting for that candidate during the “man on the street sessions.” One young lady said she was voting for Barak Obama, when she was asked what she knew about him, she knew nothing. When asked what she personally believed in and thought were important policies for our country, she named 1. Lower taxes 2. Victory in Iraq 3. Non-Government controlled Health Care and 4. Smaller government not larger government. Every issue she named was a policy issue for John McCain, yet because her parents were voting for Obama, she thought he held her values. She was 24. She admitted upon getting off the phone she needed to do more homework.”

Hey Young Voter, whether you are a liberal, a centrist, a conservative, or a libertarian…would you do your homework, identify the values you stand for, examine the policies of the candidates and then vote informed? My children and thousands of children around this country are going to live out your votes…essentially your children will too.

Join the Conversation: What do you think about the Young Vote and their Impact, both now and in the future?