July 27, 2015
You will not find politics on this page very
often. Heaven knows that there is enough
chatter about Republicans and Democrats to fill annals of cyberspace many times
over without adding another voice to the babble. Setting party politics aside, there are a few
moments in political history that bear a mention.
Today is the anniversary of the ratification
of the 12th Amendment. So it
is appropriate to think for a moment about how our history would have changed
without the 12th Amendment.
Don’t know what the 12th Amendment is? Shame on you.
Prior to the ratification of the 12th amendment on July 27,
1804, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes for president. (Google
the EC if you don’t know what it is.) The candidate with the highest number of
votes was president; the one with the second highest votes was vice
president. Understandably, this created
a few issues between the POTUS and the VEEP.
The 12th Amendment changed all that. Now each elector must cast one vote for
president and one vote for vice-president.
That concludes the history lesson for today. Now back to the question posed. Imagine if you will, how different the
landscape of history would be if--
Nixon had been the VP while Kennedy was the
president.
Or Kerry had been VP while
Bush was president.
Or Obama and
McCain.
Is your head pounding at the
thought of the upheaval our nation would have endured? All of this speculation begs another
question: Do you think today’s candidates would refrain from slinging mud if
they knew they would have to work closely with their rival? Might, but in today’s society where blame is
the name of the game, it is more likely the American public would just be
treated to four years of continuous squabbling.
Alas, this speculation will be filed with all of the other what ifs--in
a file marked Speculative Fiction. As
the presidential race heats up over the next year, it will be fun to imagine
how Hillary and the Donald would function as a team. Yikes!
In this case, like so many others in our recent history, we can be
thankful for the foresight of our forefathers.
May God bless America!
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