Things I Know

Today is Thanksgiving for every turkey that survived yesterday.

Aretha Franklin took four minutes and thirty-five seconds to sing the National Anthem at the Lions-Vikings game on Thanksgiving Day.  Anyone who takes more than one-and-a-half or two minutes to sing that song is showing off more than singing.  Still, even at age 74, Aretha Franklin sings wonderfully.  She’s a national treasure and has, no need to show off.

Our founding fathers did not want to develop a governmental class in this country.  They expected people to come into government and then leave.  George Washington was elected President in 1789.  Donald Trump was elected in 2016.  There’s no way to tell at this late date of course, but I bet our founding fathers would be astonished that it took 227 years for a President to be elected who had no governmental or military experience.

Social Fixer is an extension for the Chrome internet browser.  It is better than nothing for ridding your Facebook wall of endless comments your friends insist on continuing to make, whining or gloating about the recently concluded Presidential election.

Things I Know

The NY Post reported on Sunday that Melania Trump and ten-year-old Baron Trump will not be moving to the White House in late January, so that Baron won’t have to change schools during the school year.  That’s kind of common when someone takes a new job during their child’s school year.  Still, if the report is true, it would not be a good idea to assume that the Secret Service and the NYPD are delighted.

I got 43 comments on my “Not My President” blog item.  All of them were trying to sell us Cialis or Viagra, so I spared you.  Comments are welcomed.  Spam isn’t.

My daughter voted for Hillary.  Her reaction to Trump’s election, “But you need two years of experience to be a receptionist.”

I get so many snail-mail ads for Verizon FIOS TV that my phone bill occasionally slips through the cracks.

One of the silliest Christmas gifts I’ve seen on sale this year is a down-insulated skirt.  I can see how that might make it a little warmer to sit down on a cold surface, but all skirts are open on the bottom, which is what makes them skirts after all.  And, because they’re open on the bottom, I don’t see how the skirt being insulated does much to insulate the person wearing it.

Irrelevant Popular Vote

To those people who say Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, and, therefore, should be our next president: that’s irrelevant.  It’s a little like saying that the Cleveland Cavaliers should have won the World Series because the Cavs had more three pointers than the Cubs.  The World Series wasn’t determined based on basketball prowess, and the race for President didn’t hinge on popular vote. 

In addition, please consider this.  If the contest were for popular rather than electoral votes, the two candidates would have campaigned differently.  The outcome might have been the same or different, but I guarantee you that one way or another the vote totals would have changed.

You may ask why.  It’s simple, the two candidates’ campaigns would have concentrated more on population centers.  In 2016, New Hampshire with its three electoral votes was a battleground state.  With such a small population, do you think either candidate would have spent any time in New Hampshire if it were the popular vote that counted?

Except for a small handful of states that have changed the way they distribute electoral votes (Maine is one), in all the other states, whichever candidate wins the popular vote in the state gets all the electoral votes.

So, under the current system, Hillary Clinton got all the electoral college votes from California, Illinois, and New York; Donald Trump got nothing.  If the popular vote counted, Hillary would have gotten the majority of votes from these three states, but votes Trump received would have counted too.

Then, there’s the issue of voter motivation.  If you think your candidate is going to win in a landslide, you might not bother to vote.  If you think your candidate has no chance, you might also stay home.  If the national vote totals counted, you’d be more likely to vote for your candidate, even if the other candidate were stronger where you live.

The founding fathers deliberately created a system that didn’t rely solely on the popular vote.  The Electoral College is one example.  The Senate is another.  They intended to limit the strength of the masses and to increase the influence of the less populous, more agricultural states.  Should we change it?  Maybe, but it’s not easy, and it would take a long time.  It would require a constitutional amendment.  Should we also change the Senate for the same reasons?  Would that ever pass the Senate?

Had popular vote counted in the just completed Presidential election, the vote totals would certainly have changed and the change would not have guaranteed that Hillary Clinton would now be President-elect.

#NotMyPresident

On Wednesday, after the election, I posted on Facebook my hope that people would stop hectoring each other about politics, at least for a little while.  That post attracted two of my friends who hectored each other about politics in the comments.  So, I guess it’s over, but it’s not over.

President-elect Donald Trump was heavily criticized for saying he might not accept the result of the election.  He’s not saying it was rigged anymore, is he?  And he has accepted the result too.  Secretary Clinton and President Obama have also accepted it.  The President is meeting with the President-elect at the White House today.

To be clear, I didn’t vote for Trump or Clinton.  But the people who disturb me are the ones who have taken to the streets demonstrating, and perhaps even rioting.  Among the things they chanted, and a hashtag on the internet, “Not My President.”  Well, not yet, but effective January 20th, when he moves into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, and renames it the Trump House, yes he will be.

One of the things America has always been rightly proud of is its peaceful transition of power.  Let’s keep it that way, please.  Give the guy a chance.  Even if you did vote for him, you won’t like everything he does as President.  It’s the nature of the job.

His impact on the country is likely to last beyond his Presidency because there’s one vacancy now, and there are a lot of old judges on the Supreme Court.  With a Republican-controlled Congress he shouldn’t have any trouble getting one appointee through.  It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that he’ll get to appoint two or three justices before the end of his first term. 

As for the rest of it, if he screws up terribly, the American people will have a chance to thwart him by changing the House and Senate in just two years.  For most of the past eight years, Congress and the President have been battling each other constantly.  It might be nice to have the two bodies largely in agreement, if only for a short time. 

That is, by the way, the beauty of a parliamentary system. The prime minister and the parliament agree.  There’s usually some compromise involved because countries that have parliaments often have multiple political parties, so instead of one party being in charge it’s often a coalition.  In the event the parliament and the prime minister disagree significantly, they don’t wait for the next election.  They hold a vote of no confidence, hold a new election and vote for a government that will agree.

Election 2016

Here’s the thing.  Never in American political history have two more unpopular people run as major-party candidates for the Presidency.  I have a theory about why issues played practically no role in the campaign.  Each candidate set about trying to convince the voting public that the other was more unlikable.  So, the Presidential campaign was even more about personal attacks than it usually is.  If you wonder why political campaigns often descend to the level of personal attack, the answer is simple:  they work.  So, by the way, does pandering.

Back when I was on Congressional staff, I made a satirical political radio commercial that was never intended to air, and never did.  It was to be played at a victory party, if there was one.  The commercial said, “Vote for me because my opponent is a son of a bitch and I’m a really swell guy.”  Because of the tone of the 2016 Presidential campaign, I’m surprised that my idea wasn’t used this year.

I always vote.  I only missed one time, when I didn’t live where I was registered.  I’ve even voted by absentee ballot in a school board election.  This year, I don’t know what to tell you.  I will vote tomorrow, but right now, I think I’ll skip the first office on the ballot. 

In a few months, maybe I can make a ton of money selling bumper stickers that say, “Don’t blame me:  I didn’t vote for either one.”