ELECTORS WANTED 3 - PICKING A PRESIDENT

Electors Wanted 3 - Picking a president

Overview

This post reminds you, the reader, that you and I and most voting citizens have a very limited roll in selecting the right man to lead this country during the next four years. The post then lists the job criteria for the President we seek. Finally the post asks you to compare National Popular Vote(NPV) president with an imaginary one selected by a small group of conscientious electors.

NPV choices

As you read this blog several small groups of people are spending their time and money selecting a presidential candidate. The small groups will settle on two separate candidates, one Democrat and the other Republican. We, as  citizens, will be able to vote for either one of two candidates thus selected. The candidate offered for each party is one that will further the philosophy, wealth or status of the party leaders.

The goal of party members is not evil. In fact the goal of self interest is built into the constitution as a way to select our representatives and the prccedure was extended by amendment 17 to select senators in the same fashion.

But the constitution was careful to remove the procedure from the selection of our president. Why? Well it all has to do with the fact that the President must represent all of us. He is not to be a legislature, nor even selected by a legislature. That is to say, even an elector is forbidden to be a legislature.

Job description of the President of the United States

The US constitution lists the tasks of the President. They are:

1. To make treaties with approval of Senate

2. To appoint ambassodors, consuls, and supreme court justices with consent of the Senate

3. As conferred by the Senate, to appoint lesser offices without individual consent of the senate 

4. To provide to the congress, from time to time, information as to the state of the Union.

5. Bring up for consideration measures that he deems worthy of their concern

6. Receive ambassadors and foreign ministers

7. See that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed

8. Commission all officers of the United States

By reviewing this list you will see that the job of a President is not the same as those of a representative. The president is meant to represent each of us, according to the law of the land. It is not the President's duty to spend most of his time changing or adding to the laws. Any philosophy that he may have relative to the laws he is upholding should be put aside during his term in office.

We can see from the task list that a person whose life experience was limited to politics would probably not fit the requirements for presidency. 

Even Governors who have spent their time changing laws instead of leading the state might well lack the leadership traits to be a president.

Finding the right man for the job

The Founders of the constitution realized that the average citizen would not have the time, nor money, nor inclination to advertise and review job applicants for the job of President every four years. A representative of one's district could well be known by his fruit but the President of the whole nation can only be known by a relatively few citizens who vote. Only a small group of people from each state could take the time and effort to choose wisely. The Founders knew, also, that if they selected the President as congress is selected, the people would have to rely on some information other than that of an unbiased background check coupled with a series of interviews etc.

Of course electors must be trained. And they must be chosen by the state legislature in some non political fashion, such as a lottery. They must be chosen from a pool of available and trained voluteers, and the pool must be large enough to make outside influence unlikely.

This wonerful plan defined in the Constitution has been shamelessly overridden without amendment by the political parties of the past and continues with the parties of today. The popular concept of today, namely select the one with the National Popular Vote (NPV) does not corrupt the constitution more than the present method of selecting elector puppets. It just demonstrates for all to see that the legislature is using its contitutional right to appoint electors andappoints instead party entities that make no pretense of being individual, free thinking electors.

If anyone wants to right this wrong, as do I, then volunteer to train as an elector on "ElectorsWanted.com".