By: Todd Wheatley
(c) IQ-2k   10-28-12

More than twenty years ago the media regularly spoke of "The Solid South". But not today, and certainly not for last four election cycles. So what happened?? How did a "solid" majority of Democrats turn into a solid majority of Republicans?! Unfortunately shifting demographics do not tell the story, but the consequences of this change are huge. For a century following the Civil War the party of Lincoln (the Republicans) had virtually no influence in the South. Today nearly the reverse is true.

Today Republicans control the South ... and the Midwest. Democrats do best on the West & East Coasts. "Solid" blocks that regularly vote Democrat or Republican. It's these voting blocks that have created The United States of Ohio... Pennsylvania, and Florida. Eight to ten states that SWING Republican, then Democrat, and back again. Consequently these small number of states have become the de facto electors of the president.

Not what the framers of the constitution had in mind, I think.

These so-called SWING STATES and their associated votes in the electoral college tip the balance. Now instead of protecting the voting power of small states the electoral college has effectively disenfranchised a great many voters within states possessing a majority party. In the year 2000, for example, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote for president, but still lost the election to Republican George W. Bush. The electoral college was largely to blame.

Here, in the great state of Texas, the vote has gone Republican for many years. And in much of South as well. Yet consider the number of Democrats in the "Solid South" - Personally I'm an independent, but if I chose to vote for a Democrat, like in the 2000 presidential race I would be emasculated. Likewise millions of votes are lost to 538 electors .... 538 !! Yet regardless of elector apportionment there is no way 538 equals 350,000,000. Based on this math more than 25 million votes in Texas have been reduced to 38 and will go to Mitt Romney on November 6.

IT HAS ALREADY BEEN DECIDED -

not due to early voting, but on the fact that Texas has a majority Republican voting block. Consequently the Romney campaign has ignored the second largest state in the nation - then again so has the Obama campaign. All we hear about is Ohio. Ohio ... Ohio. Texas is three times as large, as is California, and Alaska - even Minnesota is twice as large, but you do not hear media reports of candidates camping out these states.

Eliminating the electoral college would open a space for real dialogue between the parties. If not create the space for a third party. It may even be the cure for voter apathy. If I thought it would make a difference I would write in Matt Damon ("The Adjustment Bureau"). I don't like being ignored.


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