The year 2,000 was a year that will be written in history books for many things, but in particular, one for sure. The Election 2000 fiasco. I wonder what our forefathers would have thought about it? Has the President chosen by the Electoral College been truly elected by the majority of voters. In simple truth, no. If our President has not been elected by the true majority of voters, is this then a true democracy like our forefathers intended? I don't believe so. The present form of the Electoral College is a thing of the past. It is outdated and does not truly reflect the majority of voters wishes and needs to be abolished. Any elected official needs to be elected by a simple majority of votes. When it was formed, we had basically only two parties with two candidates running. The last several elections we have had multiple candidates, receiving as much as much as 7% of the vote.

The Electoral College was setup at a time when the population of our country was spread out across the country in many diverse ways. It was based on populations in districts and the more population in certain areas received more votes to elect the President. Areas that had more population were given more House of Representatives seats, thus translating into the Electoral College which is then only changed every tens years when a new census is taken. However, what has changed over the last 100 years is that our population has changed in so many ways that it truly does not reflect the majority. We have more immigrants from other countries. For example, in southern California, it is estimated that nearly 10% of the population cannot even speak English. If voters cannot speak English, then how can they truly understand the issues and the politicians?

In addition, we now have so many different party structures that it is getting harder and harder to tell who is who. We have the right wing, the left wing, the conservatives, the liberals, the Green Party and of course both political parties. Also, it is getting harder each day to figure out who truly is a Republican or Democrat. It seems like they are all promising the same thing. However, when you check some of these politicians backgrounds of where they have really stood on issues, you find they are not what they are portraying to be. They are portraying themselves in one light to simply get the vote. And this leads me to why the Electoral College needs to be changed to this method of electing our President.

If any candidate receives more than 51% of the popular total vote, then that popular vote over rides the Electoral College. The reason why you must have 51% is, this not only reflects a majority, but because of this reason. If you had four candidates running, one getting 10% of the vote, another getting 25% of the vote, another getting 30% of the vote, then the last one getting 40% of the popular vote would be President based on what would be considered the majority of the vote, however this does not reflect the true majority of voters. 51% does though. In the case above, the Electoral College would then decide who would be President because no one candidate received 51% of the vote. Our President however should be and needs to be elected by the majority vote. That is why the Electoral College format must be changed to allow that if a candidate receives 51% of the popular vote, then the Electoral College does not decide who the President should be. The majority of Americans have.

Politicians in both parties do not want to even discuss changing the Electoral College to this correct and just method. Why? The election would then become more fair and just. Neither party would be able to concentrate only in certain areas, i.e. the areas that have the highest Electoral votes. The way it is now is that a Presidential candidate would only have to get certain states to win the election, even if that meant the other candidate had the majority of votes. Again, what is wrong with this picture?

So where does this leave us? This is my opinion of the present state of the country.

We have a Republican President that was not truly elected by the majority of voters. There is no way around this, you can talk all you want, the facts, the numbers speak for themselves. We have a Senate that is 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. We have a Republican controlled House of Representatives.

We have an economy that is slowing down. Is it because of these changes regarding political parties or is it simply that Americans have overspent on personal debt the last 4 years to the tune of over four trillion dollars? Credit card debt that Americans carry is at an all time high. Could it be that all this spending that Americans have been doing has now reached the simple adage...the bills must now be paid, no more free rides? And here is this talk of a tax cut. This is the worst promise that any politician either Republican or Democrat has made to the American voter. Why? Besides personal debt, the government has also been placed in a heavy debt load and to put it in very simple terms..America must get out of debt. America cannot keeping owing trillions of dollars. Americans, (I'm including myself), have been passing the buck on this problem the last forty years to generation after generation. Is it fair for one generation to keep generating a huge debt and expecting the next generation to pay it off? If you answer yes to this, then you truly need to take an economics class to see where this mayhem eventually leads to. A complete collapse of the economic system in place.

There are some hard decisions that must be made during this coming year and the next few years of this century. They must be the correct decisions in many areas. These areas include taxation, environment, energy, foreign affairs, social security, healthcare, immigration, civil rights, abortion. The decisions needs to be made on the facts that are there. The truths have been long ignored because of politicians promises to get themselves elected. We have become a nation of spoiled children wanting not only the best of everything but everything, but no one willing to pay the price for it. We have politicians still in office that are dinosaurs that have no sense of the reality of the issues. We presently have Cabinet members being considered in the new administration that have some very serious areas of concern. Ashcroft and Chavez as examples. Ashcroft has a serious civil rights background problems which are about as sensitive as a hammer blow to someones head. Ashcroft just lost re-election as Missouri's junior U.S. Senator to a dead man. Governor Mel Carnahan, a Democract who died in a plane crash during the campaign won the seat and his widow is serving in his place. When Ashcroft served as Missouri's attorney general in the 1980's, Ashcroft persuaded the Reagan Administration to oppose school-desegregation plans in St. Louis. He then used the issue to win the governorship in 1984. Since his election to the Senate in 1994, Ashcroft has always appealed to the right wing of his party, even when his comments risked appearing racist. While in the Senate, Ashcroft fought unsuccessfully against confirming David Satcher, a well respected black physician as Surgeon General. Ashcroft did so because Satcher opposes a ban on late-term abortions. In 1998, Ashroft told a neo-segregationist magazine, Southern Partisan that Confederate war heroes were "patriots" pertaining to their stand on segregation. In 1999, he accepted an honorary degree from South Carolina's Bob Jones University which to this day has not dropped its ridiculous ban on interacial dating. The University also bans inter-racial married couples from attending the University. Do we really need or want a person who think like Jerry Falwell or Buchanan as Attorney General? And this is the man that President Bush wants to put in as Attorney General? Hello America...what have we done? Who has the Electoral College put in as President of our country instead of who the majority of voters wanted as President? God help us all if Ashcroft is appointed Attorney General. And if he is, they will be opening their papers at the White House every month and saying, "oh no...now what he is doing?"

Regarding illegal immigrants, I thought it was illegal to even harbor one. So what is this issue about whether Chavez paid her money and whether this woman was an employee. Am I missing something here or should not the main issue here be...Did Chavez knew that this woman was a illegal alien and if so, why then was Chavez harboring a illegal alien in her home? And Chaves is suppose to be head of Labor?

It appears to me that too many questions are constructed by politicians nowadays to suit their purpose and not to address the real issue or issues. It is time that our government is once again run by the people for the people and not by large corporations who have bought themselves into the White House. Campaign contributions laws needs to be changed to avoid this problem. The decisions that will be made in so many areas this coming year will affect this country for years to come. Americans need to see that they must become much more involved in making sure that their elected officials are truly doing what they want done. If not...then no one... ten years from now... will have the right to complain. The time is now.

~ God Bless ~