A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS

I recently had an email from a friend in California suggesting certain corrections to my interpretation of the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and the manner in which attempts are being made to subvert the intentions of those revered documents and how they came into being. It is, in effect a letter from America which I hope will be the first of many. If there are any others in the US who would care to participate, I would be more than happy to receive any such communications. I might do some editing, in order to remove any inflammatory rhetoric, but on the whole I don’t imagine such messing with the texts will be necessary. I may also add any images I feel might be appropriate to accompany the posting. Do send any prospective items to edwardklein@btinternet.com. Use 'Letter from America' as subject.

 

Primer on the United States founding documents as they relate to government by the “people” and elections in the United States, today.

In 1776, The Declaration of Independence proclaimed:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

 

This language is contained in the Declaration of Independence and not in the United States Constitution. When drafted this language wasn’t intended to apply to everyone, as women, Native Americans, and African Americans were intentionally excluded from the franchise or voting in national elections. Society in the United States was run by white men, who saw other than white men and women as inferior to themselves.  

The United States Constitution, the founding document of the United States, was drafted in 1787 and ratified by the 13 original colonies, which became the “states” by 1788, and became operational in 1789 with George Washington as the first President of the United States – 13 states in number. 

The Constitution affirmed that “the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. The supremacy of the people through their elected representatives is recognized in Article I, which creates a Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The positioning of Congress at the beginning of the Constitution affirms its status as the “First Branch” of the federal government.” [United States Senate archives] 

Article II, Section One of the Constitution sets forth the manner in which the President of the United States shall be chosen: 

“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. 

“The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate [the Vice President of the United States]. [On January 6 following the November election] the President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representatives from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Vice-President.”

This Section is critical to an understanding of what Donald Trump and his acolytes tried to accomplish before and on January 6, 2021, the date of the assault on the US Capitol building and the “insurrection” which was referenced in the news. After repeated attempts to us the power of the Presidency to 1) bully Secretaries of State in the “swing states”, that gave President Biden the election, to change their vote tallies to favour Trump, 2) influence the United States Department of Justice to declare that there was election fraud, 3) engage certain senators, congressmen, and attorneys to put pressure on certain state officials to declare fraud in the election, Trump assembled a crowd of his constituents at the White House on January 6, 2021. He told them the election was stolen, a refrain he was repeating months before and after the election, and that they should go down to the Capitol and fight for their democracy. He and others gave speeches whipping them up into a frenzy, and sent them to the Capital building in an effort to stop the counting of the ballots – referenced in the US Constitution paragraphs above. Additionally, Trump attempted on numerous occasions to convince the Vice President, Mike Pence, to throw out enough of the state certifications to throw the election into the House of Representatives, where the Republicans would re-elect Trump, as each state only has one vote. When Pence refused Trump sent the crowd to the Capitol to stop the count. There were a number of militia organizations, which took part in the insurrection, who attacked the Capitol building with military tactics. A select committee of the US House of representatives is currently investigating what coordination of these groups occurred and who was involved.

Although Trump’s attempt to retain the Presidency failed, the Republicans have proposed, and in a number of cases, have passed laws in a number of states, to disenfranchise minorities [who tend to vote Democratic].

During Trump’s tenure, the Republicans packed the courts with ultra-conservative judges and justices. So, attempting to fight these voter suppression tactics, of the Republican Party, necessarily will end up in the federal courts where the new conservative judges await their chance to eliminate the opposition to these laws.

What can be done? Congress can pass laws regarding federal elections and how they must be held, but it takes a majority in the House of Representatives (similar to the House of Commons), a majority in the Senate, and a Presidential signature on the legislation. The problem is in the Senate.

The framers of the United States Constitution didn’t trust the ordinary person and tilted the playing field toward landowners, which created our bicameral federal Congress, giving outsized representation to states with small populations. Each state has only two Senators for a total membership of 100. So, Wyoming, with 590,000 inhabitants has the same number of US Senators as does California with 39,657,000 inhabitants! A significant number of states have vast amounts of land and few people, and a majority of these folks vote Republican. In order to change this system to a popular vote, 2/3 of Congress must agree on an Amendment to the Constitution and ¾ of the states must ratify that Amendment – a tall order! States that benefit from this arrangement are unlikely to vote for any changes. Popular election of the President would solve the Electoral College problem, but the chances of that occurring in our lifetimes are slim.

We’d all like to see change, as the population migrates to urban areas, which tend more to the Democratic Party and rural areas become more Republican. There’s a rural county in Texas where Trump won 69% more votes than Biden. Accomplished and educated young people have tended to move from the rural areas to urban areas, where they can earn more money and have a better life. Many rural areas and smaller cities in the United States have been factory towns, and a number of those factories have closed offering little incentive for the young achievers to remain.

After the Civil War in 1865, black men were given the legal right to vote, so whites in the Southern States set about to create [Jim Crow] laws which made it hard or next to impossible for a black man to vote. Those laws persisted until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, and black men and women and other minorities were able to qualify to vote without poll taxes and impossible written and oral “tests”. Additionally, women in the US didn’t have the right to vote until 1920. The Constitution allowed a number of limitations on voting, which have been overcome during the last 232 years.

However lately, as the Republicans have packed the courts with right-wing conservative judges. The United States Supreme Court began to acquire more conservative judges through the efforts of the Republicans in the US Senate, which must approve judicial appointments. Through a refusal to approve mainstream judges by use of the filibuster [a US Senate rule allowing a senator to prevent a vote on a bill, unless 60 or more senators vote to proceed], the Republicans kept the Obama administration from filling a number of federal court judicial vacancies, including one on the US Supreme Court, which had been evenly divided between conservatives and liberals [Justice Scalia having died and the Senate holding the vacancy open, until a Republican administration could be elected in 2016. When Trump took office, the Republican majority in the US Senate, eliminated the filibuster for the appointment of federal judges and filled all of the federal courts vacancies that occurred during the Obama administration and more, including 3 [of the 9 judges] on the US Supreme Court. Additionally, in 2013 when the conservative justices were in the majority, the US Supreme Court was willing to invalidate critical portions the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which kept states from passing voter suppression laws. This opened the floodgates for states to pass voter suppression laws in a majority of states. So, we’re facing minority rule in the US and we have Trump looming as a candidate in 2024!

Republicans have a minority of the voters in the United States, but have been able to win elections and control the federal government with “gerrymandering” [the manipulation of the boundaries of congressional districts in states so as to favour their party] and the tactics set forth herein.

US laws set limits for political contributions for candidates directly, but big corporations and wealthy individuals set up PACs or Political Action Committees, which have no limitations on how much can be spent on a person’s candidacy. Congress tried to outlaw this practice, claiming too much corporate influence in elections, but the US Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote, not only permitted PACs, claiming spending money was a form of free speech, but al nullified the requirement that the source of the money be divulged in advertising run for political candidates. Additionally, these PACs are permitted to form non-profit corporations and are not required to report on the source or amount of the funds received, and are empowered to keep the individual donors a secret. So, when these political ads run, no one watching can identify what group is really paying for it. It’s less embarrassing for the candidate that way!! And, no one knows what company or individual is seeking to gain an advantage through installing a politician, who will do their bidding.

Also, the paucity of news in rural areas, is causing a substantial knowledge gap as local newspapers close and local radio and TV outlets are being purchased by extremely right wing individuals and corporations. Fox News, owned and operated by Rupert Murdock, is the single largest purveyor of false “news” in the US and was originally conceived and built by Roger Ailes, who was a political operative during the Nixon administration. There is an appalling dearth of objective news in rural areas. In many sparsely populated areas in rural America, there is no local newspaper, and only right wing broadcast outlets providing a healthy dose of Republican propaganda. In a democracy, an uninformed populace stands a good chance of losing their democracy. These areas are where the Trump voters live in large numbers.

The United States is facing minority rule in the US, and we have Trump looming as a candidate in 2024!

..................

I would just like to add the following two videos:

 

Here are the voices of two people who are now going against everything they claimed to stand for.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the mob that attacked the Capitol was "provoked" by President Donald Trump. "The mob was fed lies," McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on the Senate floor.

 

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy addresses Congress during the second House impeachment hearing for President Donald J. Trump. He should replay his words for himself if only to remind himself how far his hypocrisy has evolved.