Our Republic
By Antonio Benedi
Last
week we, a free nation witnessed a remarkable thing,
free elections. We
should take into account facts that our founding
fathers put into the framework of building a country
unlike any other in the history of man.
A basic and
important fact that seems to get lost in every
election cycle is that our great country, the United
States of America, is not a Democracy.
Let me
reiterate this point, in our Pledge of Allegiance it
is written, “I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the ‘Republic’ for
which it stands”… Not, and for the ‘Democracy’, for
which it stands.
Our
founding fathers did not call the formation of our
way of government a Democracy.
They
intentionally called it a Republic.
“We the
People” elect representatives to government to
represent us. These representatives are entrusted by
our citizens to govern and cast votes on our behalf.
They are
committed to vote as they feel the electorate that
put them in office would like them to.
But they are
free to use their own judgment on every vote that is
presented to them. Given
that our founding fathers wanted a representative
government they established the framework of our
“Federal” system. They
established a way for us to elect those
representatives. The President of the United States
is elected by the states “electoral vote.”
Each State
has a number of these electoral votes that go into
electing a President. The “popular” vote or our
individual vote does not directly elect the
President. A
President can be elected by 270 electoral votes and
still lose the popular vote. Again, our individual
vote does not elect a president directly.
The Congress
has two bodies, the Senate and House of
Representatives. The Senate is made up of two
Senators from each State, regardless of population.
For instance,
Wyoming and Montana have two US Senators each and
because of the small population there, they only
have one House member.
In case of a
269 to 269 tie in the Electoral College, it is the
House that decides who the president will be, the
Senate decides the Vice President.
Again, the House, the closest to the people, decides
who the president would be.
The
President is elected every four years and cannot
serve more than two consecutive terms.
The Senate is
elected for six years and can be elected over and
over again. The
House of Representatives is elected ever two years
and it too can be elected over and over again.
This was
intentionally done by our founding fathers to have
the House of Representatives be the closest link to
“We the People.” If
we do not like what our direct representatives are
doing, we get to remove them every two years.
Last
week the “Republic” spoke. The President was
re-elected by a wide majority of the “Electoral
College.” But the popular vote was very close. This
is no mandate! The country was nearly split in half.
The Senate
was re-elected Democratic by a few votes.
The House of
Representatives, our closest voices to the Federal
Government was re-elected Republican to be the
majority and its leader, The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, a Republican, to be third in line
for the Presidency. The
succession of power is the President, Vice President
and third, the Speaker of the House. Members of the
House are the most direct keepers of our will and
desires. They are the check and balance that the
American people put back in power to protect our
interest at the local and national level.
This was no
mistake. It
is a clear indication that when you go to the lowest
common denominator of our electorate, they re-elect
a party that stands with them.
Without any
hesitation in my mind, I truly believe our founding
fathers had this complex framework written for the
purpose of protecting the integrity of a single
voter, in a single district/precinct, to be fully
represented in this great nation of ours.
I
regret that there were some basic fundamental errors
committed in this election, for instance, the lack
of control over who gets to vote and who does not.
The US
Constitution states that “only” citizens of this
country are allowed the privilege to vote.
There are
many States that do not even require basic
identification, or proof of citizenship.
Therefore, there are loopholes that exist in our
voting procedures that must be corrected, but that’s
for another day!
The
United States of America is the greatest nation and
last beacon of hope for the world.
We must
protect our institutions and respect what our
founders intended for us.
There will be
new elections not far in the future.
Participate,
you can and will make a difference!
Antonio Benedi is a former Special Assistant to the
President of the United States, George H.W. Bush.
Cuban-American