Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Shopping Malls, Bon Jovi, and the Failure of the System

Amid CNN's coverage of the primaries there were various breaks with analysts and special guests. One of these guests was the eminent governor from the state of New Jersey, whose name I can't recall and wouldn't want to anyway.

New Jersey was seen as something of an unknown quantity to the democrats. Nobody had any clue which way the state was leaning. Preliminary polls had Senators Clinton and Obama at nearly equal. So, the powers that be invited this poor governor, a delegate from New Jersey, to come on the show and shed some light on the situation.

The interviewer asked governor "Jersey" which way he believed his state was leaning. The gov. replied that he'd already committed his support to Sen. Clinton. Then the interviewer asked, "What if your state's citizens choose to majority-support Sen. Obama?"

A dicey question indeed. What does a delegate do when they've already committed to a candidate and their constituents end up voting otherwise? Luckily, this scenario didn't play out, and Senator Clinton carried the state, albeit by a fairly small margin.

In any case, governor Jersey replied to the interviewer, "We intend to honor our commitments...New Jersey will do right by Hillary Clinton".

So, in the political tumult of the Garden State, by means of an innocent interview, the most horrific crime against our system of government was nearly enacted by the most public of parties. The worst fears of our founding fathers were on the table, and everyone remained as silent as a sack of churchmice tossed overboard.

This is the most terrifying of flaws in the Electoral College - that the people speak and are ignored.

Webster's would define this as a condition known as "tyranny".