How to Separate the Electoral College Even More from the Popular Vote

Plans are afoot in Michigan (and elsewhere) to change how the State awards its electoral votes in presidential elections by dropping the winner-take-all system for one based on the winner of each of the state's congressional districts.

According to the plan, for the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Michigan would award 14 of its 16 electoral votes according to the U.S. House district lines drawn by Republicans in 2011 to favor Republican candidates. (As evidenced by the fact that almost twice as many Michigan citizens voted for Democratic candidates as for Republicans, but the Republicans won more of the races.)

Governor Rick Snyder has signaled he is willing to consider this major change in how electoral votes are allocated in Presidential elections.  He told The Associated Press for a story looking at Republican efforts to drop the winner-take-all system in states that have reliably gone for the Democratic presidential nominee in recent elections that he "could go either way."

Here's an example of what the change could mean: According to an analysis by Daily Kos, in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney would have won nine of the districts and President Barack Obama the other five, so Mr. Romney would have pulled nine electoral votes to seven for Mr. Obama, who won the state by 9.5 percentage points.

So, it's clear that the proposal to allot electoral votes by congressional district would run counter to the popular vote in a significant way.

If Synder hopes to be a Governor for ALL the people of Michigan, he'll quash this blatantly Republican-serving plan to do away with the winner-take-all system.  But, unless he hears strong protests from Involved Voters, I think he's likely to go with the flow and support the plan of fellow Republicans.

Update: For a satirical look at this topic, watch Stephen Colbert here: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423114/january-22-2013/the-word---win--lose--or-redraw

President Obama's Inaugural Address

I listened to the President's Second Inaugural Address live and then watched and listened with colleagues at a get-together to celebrate our success in the 2012 campaign.  If there ever was a 20 minute speech worth multiple listens this is it: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/inaugural-address/

For an analysis of where the majority of voters stand on some of the areas the President highlighted during the address - climate change, marriage equality, voting rights, immigration and gun violence, you can take a look at this blog post: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/what-does-public-support-in-obamas-second-inaugural-speech/

One thing I took away from the President's address is that "we, the people" need to get to work to make  our law-makers responsive to us, and to do what we can to ensure that everyone in America can realize the promise of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Ignore the "US government is spending too much" hype

Involved voters have reason to ignore Senator Mich McConnell, Alan Simpson and Ersine Bowles when they say the real problem is spending.

Check out these recent blog posts in which Kevin Drum at Mother Jones and Samuel Knight at the Washington Monthly's Political Animal expose them for the ideologues they are.

Drum provides the data and states:

The facts are pretty clear. Spending isn't our big problem. The recession spike of 2008 aside, it's about the same as it was 30 years ago. But instead of paying for that spending, we've repeatedly cut taxes, which are now at their lowest level in half a century. Tax revenue will go up as the economy improves, but even five years from now it will still be lower than it was when Reagan took office. 

So what's our real problem? That's simple: America is getting older and healthcare costs are rising. That means we'll need to spend more money in the future on Social Security and Medicare. There's simply no way around that unless we're willing to immiserate our elderly, and that's not going to happen.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/01/we-dont-have-spending-problem-we-have-aging-problem

According to Knight:

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles - co-founders of the corporate lobby Campaign to Fix the Debt ... argue that the national debt is a reason to gut the welfare state. ... 

But they and their disciples couldn’t be more wrong. The U.S. government has no “spending problem” from a macroeconomist’s point of view. Of course, the country can’t indefinitely continue to borrow more than it earns, but the idea that we must somehow tackle debt by cutting spending — and do it right now — is voodoo economics of the highest order.

For spending to be an immediate problem, it would have to be problematic.
...
Yet interest rates are rock bottom and aren’t expected to rise anytime soon, and demand for U.S. Treasury bonds remains high.

Thus, government spending appears to be having no averse effect on financial markets, which, according to Treasury yields, actually seem to think that lending the U.S. government money is a wise idea. The debt “crisis” is only caused by a “spending problem” when one considers government spending to be an issue from an ideological standpoint.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_01/simpson_and_bowles_spending_pr042221.php

Tell your friends and family how bogus the "spending problem/debt crisis" talk is.  Contact your US Senator and Representative.   Tell them that increasing revenue (especially through taxes on the super-rich) needs to continue to be on the table.  And back up the President when he goes to bat for the middle class and those who are in danger of falling out of it.

Eternal Vigilance

Here in Michigan there is a lame duck legislative session during which Republicans will try to push their Tea Party-style agenda while the five incumbents defeated by Democrats are still around.

Despite clear messages to the contrary from the majority of Michigan voters, the Republicans will go ahead with plans for legislation:

• Undermining workers' rights
• Instituting voucher-style "reform" of public schools
• Cutting taxes even further for corporate special interests

I guess they're hoping we're all busy preparing for the holidays and won't notice what they're up to.  But, being an Involved Voter means being committed to eternal vigilance.  So, let your State Representative and Senator know you're watching and will remember what they do when the next election comes around.

Republicans at the national level haven't gotten the messages of the November 6 election yet either.  They're still resisting tax rate increases on the wealthy - protecting them at the expense of everyone else and claiming they are all "job creators."  A recent opinion piece by self-made billionaire, Warren Buffett, pokes holes in their arguments and makes the case for a fairer tax structure.  See the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/opinion/buffett-a-minimum-tax-for-the-wealthy.html?ref=opinion and then tell your Representative what you want him or her to do.

Campaigning for a Balanced Solution to the "Fiscal Cliff" Problem Begins Now

OK Involved Voters, we've had our day of rest.  Time to lobby the House of Representatives with its Republican majority for a balanced solution to the "fiscal cliff" problem.

Here's what I sent to my Michigan 7th District Representative via his web site:

Dear Representative Walberg:  I am hopeful that the message you are taking away from the results of Tuesday's election is that the majority of Americans want Congress to work with the President to avoid the "fiscal cliff".  So, please, tear up your Grover Norquist "no taxes ever" pledge and see that the richest among us are finally asked to pay their fair share of taxes.  Favoring millionaires at the expense of education, R&D, rebuilding infrastructure, and public safety makes NO sense.  Please read and believe the report of the Congressional Research Service which shows that continuing tax breaks for the rich is NOT a path to creating jobs in the US.

Please add your voice to the call for fact-based compromise.  Call, email or write - today - before spin takes it toll and delusion sets in again in the Republican House.

Voting IS The Best Revenge...

...revenge for having to endure the flood of lies and misinformation from Republican slime-machines like Crossroads GPS.  According to the Sunlight Foundation, 81% of the "dark money" polluting the 2012 election, is being used by groups supporting Republicans.

So, get your revenge for those TV and radio ads, robo-calls and mailers by voting!  Michigan voters can check their registration status, find their polling places and see a sample ballot at the Michigan Secretary of State's web site.

"No" to Romney on Military Spending

Why I say "no" to Romney's plan to spend an additional $2 trillion on the military in the next decade:

I'll let this quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower, Army General and President of the United States from January 20, 1953 to January 20, 1961 state the case. (Some of us are old enough to remember Ike.)

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

-  From DDE's Address "The Chance for Peace" Delivered Before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 4/16/53

To many Involved Voters this "ancient wisdom" provides yet another reason to re-elect President Obama and VP Biden.