IT’S ELECTION TIME
We have an amazing political system in this country, and it gets even crazier during election years. As an American History teacher, please allow me to educate the uninformed on the whole process.
It’s a little known fact that George Washington turned down a royal monarchy because he had hoped 100 or so Presidential hopefuls would run for the Highest Office in essentially a 2 party system in the year 2008. Though all of these candidates actually have different ideas and plans, those with the largest pockets will inherently gain the advantage because they will have the greatest chance to actually tell people what they believe. It would help to have great political experience here such as being a governor, a senator, a major league baseball owner, a peanut farmer, a Hollywood icon, or married to a previous President.
When this field breaks down to a handful, these thankful folks campaign from state to state, sometimes holding elections, sometimes holding giant “get all of my friends in a giant room and count them” to see if indeed they are well liked in that particular state. Because of their enormous size and population, the grand states of Iowa and New Hampshire carry the utmost importance.
Once a candidate decides they cannot win, they decide to heroically drop out of the race even though quitting anything else in society is seen as bad. In hopes of obtaining some powerful position in the future, it is always wise to stand behind the leading candidate even though just two weeks ago you spent 14 million dollars slamming all his policies.
If the election is close and a delegate count cannot be reached, then the vote actually goes to something called a “convention.” Here, America is surprised to find out that the though newspapers for months have been keeping a count of how many delegates a candidate has won, it actually doesn’t matter because the actual person representing the State of Arkansas (or any other state) does not even have to actually vote the way their state told them to. And if the vote is still close, a “Super Delegate”—which is like some kind of superhero that can change his opinion more often that Superman changes his clothes in a telephone booth—can pick anybody they want.
Then we have a Republican…and a Democrat…and an entire host of other candidates from other groups that have no chance of winning like the Libertarian, Centrist, Socialist, & the Alaskan Independence Party. Sometimes a guy named Ross or Ralph will get involved and throw the whole system even more off balance, but that only happens every OTHER election. Then on the first Tuesday following the first Monday of every 4th November, about half of country travels to a local high school or church to stand in a surprisingly quiet line to enter into a booth to make the important decision—and about 30 others ranging from anything including who will become county clerk or whether cockfighting should be illegal in Missouri.
Our vote for President counts precisely 0.000000008 of the final outcome, but that’s based on 2004 results, our impact is likely to drop since we have more voters this time. After MOST of the votes are counted (excluding soldiers overseas, Calfornia, most of the West Coast, and Islanders living in Captain Cook, Hawaii) the news media declares a winner!
That’s when I curl up into bed with my loving wife who happened to go to bed hours ago (she is not as thrilled as I to discover which candidate won Wyoming). And realize that regardless who wins, I serve a King who knew me before I was born, knit me in my mother’s womb, knows me personally, and has created eternity to spend with me. And since I checked His name, the name of Jesus into my life years ago, I am actually the real winner.