Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Electoral College is a topic that arouses much controversy during the months leading up to the Presidential elections which take place every four years. Many argue that it is an outdated system of choosing our country’s next leader, but I disagree. In reality, it provides many advantages that a popular would eradicate. First of all, an election based directly on the popular vote would cause Presidential candidates to focus on only the most densely populated regions of the country. Many areas would be completely ignored because they are too thinly populated to make a significant impact on the outcome of the election. For a country that prides itself on diversity, it would not be practical to disregard entire sections of its territory. The Electoral College ensures that every state counts and matters, and it is certainly not the only part of our government that is built on this principle. We need to keep this system in place for the same reasons that we need the United States’ Senate; the Founding Fathers intended for representation to be based on population to a certain degree, but the Senate was created to give each state more equal representation. On the surface, the Electoral College seems to clash with the democratic principles of our country, but the fact is that the United States of America is not a pure democracy. The founders of our country actually intended it to be a constitutional republic, so by eliminating the Electoral College, our country would be pulled further away from the vision that led to its creation.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

The topic that we will be discussing for our Arguing to Mediate assignment is the Electoral College and its role in the election of the President of the United States of America. I will be arguing in favor of this process by giving a detailed explanation of how it works and outlining all of the advantages that it provides in determining the next leader of our country. Ultimately, I will attempt to convince my partner that this process should be kept and trusted to elect the person whom the American public wishes to represent the country as a whole.