Michael
Barnes
American
Literature Honors
John
Hardison
16
November 2012
America’s Tragic Downfall
The
presidential elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and this past election of
2012 all have one major thing in common. In each of those elections, America
was defeated. “What does he mean by that?” some of you ask, I mean the majority
of America was overridden by the Electoral College. The popular vote came to
one candidate while the electoral vote came to another. This could be because
there is an actual possibility due to the set up of the college, in which a
combination of just 11 states could get the 270 electoral votes needed to win. This
mere possibility stands to show how un-American this is. In all previous cases
of the popular vote losing the electoral vote has been moderately close, but in
this most recent election the electoral vote was separated by almost 100 votes
in favor of Obama whom did not win the popular vote. How is that possible? It
is possible under the circumstance that in the states Romney won, he had a
heavy majority, but in the states Obama won, it was a close vote. So why in
anybody’s right mind should the Electoral College continue to decide the
president? It should be the vote of America to decide the president, which is
why I am here today to present a bill that would retract the Electoral College
and leave the presidential vote as a complete democracy!
For
this proposal to be ignored would be un-American! The Electoral College is
un-American, letting a few populous states decide is un-American. How can the
majority of America want one thing but the country decide another? It is
un-American. The Electoral College is useless, out of date, and unnecessary. In
fact the only thing about the college that is necessary is that it gets
decommissioned from use in the American government. Maybe I am wrong, maybe if
it was a direct democracy more people would vote because their vote would
actually matter more and the result could be drastically different in favor of
Obama. I am not here today to cast my opinion on Obama or Romney, but the
popular vote needs to be represented. Even if Obama did win under my proposal,
it would be who America voted for. In states that are dominantly republican or
democratic, often times people of the other party won’t even vote and therefore
the state is already won, but if the Electoral College was removed those people
would vote and each side would be fully represented.
If
this becomes reality and I am totally confident it will, this will be a very
heated debate, I want nobody that claims to be supporting me to be violent
during this process. I am here to practice my best imitation of the work of the
great Martin Luther King Jr. and his non-violent system of protesting against
un-American way of life! “We will reach the goal of freedom…because the goal of
America is freedom.”(King, Jr. 180). How do we expect to reach our goal of
freedom if our country is not run by what the people want? In the masterful
work of the historic transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, he stated “I ask
for, not at once no government, but at once a better government” and soon after
concluded “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his
respect.” Well I stand before my fellow Americans to ask for a better
government, one where at least our leader is decided by the true will of
America and its people, one where in party dominated states every vote still
matters, and one where our government does demand the respect of every man.
-Please comment and help me with the following... Rating each part will also help!(1-10)
1-Is my thesis strong and clear?
2-Does my body support my thesis?
3-Is my conclusion done well?
4-What are my strengths and weaknesses as a writer in this essay?
5-Do you agree or disagree with my essay after reading it and why?
-Please comment and help me with the following... Rating each part will also help!(1-10)
1-Is my thesis strong and clear?
2-Does my body support my thesis?
3-Is my conclusion done well?
4-What are my strengths and weaknesses as a writer in this essay?
5-Do you agree or disagree with my essay after reading it and why?
Work Cited
King, Martin L., Jr. "Letter From a Birmingham City
Jail." Speech. Cn.edu. The Atlantic Monthly. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf>.
"Henry David Thoreau." Henry David Thoreau. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/thoreau/>.
