Representation, government and politics

I’ll leave the number 436 aside for a bit, and first explain what this blog is about.

In American democracy the concepts of representation, government and politics are not easy to separate. They are intertwined legally and socially. It may be more useful to understand these relationships than to try to change them.

Our government operates under the social contract of the governed. The literal contract is our Constitution. The actual contract goes beyond what is written in the founding documents, enacted by the Congress, performed by the Executive or corrected by the Judiciary.

It is no secret to my family and friends that I voted for Clinton. It would be dishonest for me not to reveal that here. There is still a Hillary sign in front of my house as I write this. That fact does not invalidate my thoughts.

Today, December 19, 2016, the Electoral College “meets” (air quote style to be explained in a later post) to cast its votes. I never expected the Electoral College members would vote against their obligations, nor would I want them to. The Hillary sign is still up because I want to remind people of the fact that Clinton won the popular vote. That fact cannot and should not change the electoral result. But it should at least change some attitudes and behaviors of politicians.

Politicians are part of the contract. Let’s not be hypocrites. We support our politicians, at the very least by voting for them. We expect politicians to engage in politics, right? That’s part of their role, to advocate for us.

There is a narrative that politicians are bad people. Maybe just those on the other side? We have to stop that kind of narrative, and talk about issues. A big problem is, the issues can run a lot deeper than what we have time to think about. It is much easier to fill the conversation with noise.

Here are some numbers that will be mentioned in this blog. These numbers are structural, built into the Constitution, laws, and election processes. These numbers are not about who won an election or how to change it. They are about how people who vote are actually represented in the final result. They are not the whole story.

538 The number of Electoral College votes nation-wide. Each state is allocated one vote per House of Representatives seat, plus two more votes. The District of Columbia is allocated three votes.

436 The number of House seats, plus one more for the District of Columbia.

270 The number of Electoral College votes needed to win the presidential election.

269 An Electoral College tie occurs when each of two candidates receives this number of electoral votes.

102 The number of Senate seats, plus two for the District of Columbia. This component of the Electoral College boosts the voting power of smaller states.

3 The minimum number of Electoral College votes for any state and the District of Columbia.

2 The number of Senate seats per state, and also a component of the total number of Electoral College votes for each state and the District of Columbia.

1 The number of Electoral College votes allocated for each seat the state holds in the House.

0 The number of votes counted for people who do not to vote. There are lots of reasons why people don’t vote.

Can we talk about this a bit deeper?

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Establishing a web presence like this is new to me. While I am influenced by news, reading, and conversation, on these pages "I" refers to just one person, which is me of course. I will introduce myself later.

I would like to allow comments to be posted here, but I don’t have the time to read all of them, respond, or moderate. I have a life and job that are very different and have nothing to do with this blog. Sorry.

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#436 #538 #electoralcollege #popularvote