Constitution

The Shell Game-Rank Choice Voting

Christopher Maider

The interesting turn in the 2018 midterm elections wasn’t Democrat control of our House of Representatives, but rather how many of them came to be by a narrow margin and a lack of voter participation. The recent recall and re-win of indicted Fall River Mayor Corriea underscores this. Then again Massachusetts has a history of indicted, on trial and imprisoned Governors, Mayors and other representatives serving time while serving in government.

In the election of Cortez only 27,744 out of 214,750 registered Democrats showed up on election day. In Fall River roughly 13,000 showed up to vote for five candidates. Advocates of Rank Choice Voting (RCV) claim this will be avoided with RCV in elections. Well, that’s all well and good if people actually showed up to vote.

The problem isn’t the system or a ‘plurality’ of parties. The problem is people DO NOT participate! RCV does not address this 800 lb gorilla in the room. The Cortez and Corriea election victories do not represent the majority of all voters. It just represents who bothered to show up. How does RCV solve this issue? It doesn’t. In fact, under RCV the other candidates could rank up their votes until a second place loser overtakes the original winner. In the case of Corriea the eventual winner would have won by even lesser numbers than the Mayor himself. The entire thing is a shell game.

Under Arrow’s Theorem you pick your choices from best to worse. You ‘manufacture’ the winner by taking second and third choices and running them up the scale. Essentially, you choose the steak. But you would be happy with the pork if steak loses out. In the final round you settle for the chicken in case you get niether steak or pork. According to a Stanford U. paper published;

“Nothing is necessarily wrong with that; the decision process can be perfectly democratic, and one person simply turns out to be on the winning side on all issues. ”
(Hylland 1986: 51, footnote 10)
Aanund Hylland

Then there is Occam’s second Razor. In order to claim something as fact it must be proven. Any and all questions, deviations, secondary statements to such must also be proven. Rank Choice Voting does not ‘prove’ this. It simply says so.

RCV isn’t a better system; It is just another system.

What is a proven fact is in elections you are choosing a winner over a loser. A vote for candidate A is a vote against candidate B. This is how elections work! The concept of ‘spoiler’ candidates is a construct. What the hell does that mean? Is RCV insinuating others SHOULD NOT run for office? How can RCV claim to open the process to better candidates, more parties, more openness while using such language?

Speaking about language; On RCV sites you will constantly see the word ‘Democracy’. Politicians who want to adopt this shell game will read from the script. While local elections are based on a majority vote our Federal Government is a Constitutional Republic.

If RCV cannot get our most basic form of government straight then how can we believe them to institute and ensure a more fair and equitable voting system?

And That Is The Diatribe….

Christopher Maider
Dean of Journalism
Worcester Tea Party

“…pause and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from the government of one man.”

“…pause and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from the government of one man.”

Ken

“The time will and must come,

when honesty will receive its reward,

and when the people of this nation

will be brought to a sense of their duty,

and will pause and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from the government of one man.”     

                                       Davy Crockett

 

To a generation of early television viewers, Davy Crockett was a larger than life mythical  television character, (“Raised in the woods so’s he knew every tree, Killed him a bear when he was only three”) but the real Col. David “Davy” Crockett’s life story doesn’t need any embellishing.  Born into the infant nation in August of 1786, Crockett developed a reputation as a frontiersman, folk hero, story teller, politician, and soldier.  His reputation carried him to Congress for three terms, though he also lost his seat twice because of his anti-Jackson advocacy.

In early May of 1834 (just two years before he died fighting at The Alamo), Col. Crockett arrived in Boston via stagecoach by way of Providence as part of a tour (“Object being to examine the grand manufacturing establishments of the country; and also to find out the condition of its literature and morals, the extent of its commerce, and the practical operation of ‘The Experiment'”).  Crockett was treated like a prince in Boston.  Crockett’s memoir of his travels documents his positive impressions of Boston,  the hospitality he received,  and the commerce and manufacturing he witnessed.    

On one evening he was invited to speak to some young Whigs.  On his way to speak to them, he toured the Charlestown Navy Yard and noted that The Constitution was in drydock there being retimbered.  At the front of the ship, was a figure-head of Andrew Jackson.  “…they had fixed him just where he had fixed himself, that was, before the Constitution”. 

Crockett was a prominent and vocal opponent of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act.  He knew that this position would cost him politically in his district in Tennessee, but he stood firm in his opposition.  (“I believed it was a wicked, unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost against me be what it might.”) 

 Crockett’s speech to the young Whigs was a litany of Jackson’s abuses of power.  Crockett lamented that the blood of our revolutionary forefathers may have been spilled in vain, less than 60 years after the Revolutionary War.  “It has been decided by a majority of Congress, that Andrew Jackson shall be the Government,  and that his will shall be the law of the land”.   

180 years after Col. Crockett bared his concerns about our damaged Republic, it seems like we continue to repeat the same mistakes.  For decades, Congress has ceded more and more power to the President, to unelected career bureaucrats, to appointed judges, and to petty regulators.  Congress is supposed to represent the people and control the purse, but it has decayed into a useless, fetid, corpse of what our Constitution requires.

While many may feel comfort when their party occupies the White House, the imbalance in what was supposed to be a system of checks and balances will be fatal to the republic.

Republicans have failed as the party of fiscal conservatism, which was probably the single greatest concern that sparked the Tea Party movement almost 10 years ago.  Republicans exploited this issue to gain support from Tea Party members, but their words have turned out to be empty rhetoric.  We can cheer tax cuts, but there have been no counter balancing spending cuts.  The pig that we used to represent Congress in 2009 is immobilized by its morbid obesity.  The pig consumes everything, whether it is a blue pig or a red pig.

In his speech to the Whigs in Boston, Col. Crockett said “I this day walked over the great battle-ground of Bunker’s hill and thought whether it was possible that it was moistened with the sacred blood of our heroes in vain, and that we should forget what they fought for.  I hope to see our once happy country restored to its former peace and happiness, and once more redeemed from tyranny and despotism…the true friends of liberty see the laws and constitution blotted out from the heads and hearts of the people’s leaders…They meet the same fate that they did before King George and his parliament.” 

It is well past time for all Americans, regardless of party, to  “pause and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from the government of one man.”  Congress must reclaim its equal place in our tripartite system. 

Has our government always worked this way?

Matt O'Brien

“American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom, relying on judges and lawyers rather than elected leaders and the ballot box, as the primary means of effecting their social agenda on everything from gay marriage to assisted suicide to the use of vouchers for private-school education.”

This month, we are witnessing one of the most important rituals of American democracy:  the confirmation hearing of a United States Supreme Court nominee.  This process has evolved over the past few decades, particularly since the failed nomination of Judge Bork.  The contentiousness has reached embarrassing levels.  Like most modern political practices, we continue to battle over nominees much as our forefathers did, but we do it in a way that shows little regard for the character and qualifications of the nominee.

Read more →

America has a 240th Birthday and we get the gifts

Matt O'Brien
The Constitution of the United States of America, the longest lasting written constitution in world history – is a document written over 200 years ago, during the time of many competing philosophies of which Rational (based on facts or reason) and Empirical (by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic) are but two. Well-reasoned and intelligently thought out, it is a document for the ages with goals that are fairly simple and straightforward.
Row of USA Flags 2 (2)
The time of Rationalism (also known as ‘The Enlightenment’) gave us scientific and political revolutions and changed the world, hurtling us into Modernism; it was during this time that our Constitution was born. Based on what was happening in many nations in Europe, our Founders were determined to create a better government, designed to “secure the ‘blessings of Liberty’ to ourselves and our Posterity.” In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders stated:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Based on the failures of government by Oligarchy, Monarchy, or other Authoritarian Rulers at that time, and to prevent a Tyrannical Government, the Founding Fathers, fearing tyranny in every form, created in the Constitution a 3-pronged approach to keeping Freedom and Liberty: the Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and Federalism so that Tyranny could not be easily established.

Our Constitution is a Gift from those who came before and is our only protection from those who wish to impose their Tyranny upon us; we must work to make sure it is properly upheld from within, or face the dire consequences. If you are not already involved in ensuring Liberty within the United States, please join with us in doing so and to protect the government ‘of the people.’

In Liberty,
Marla Stone
Dean of Letters
Worcester Tea Party
Worth Defending At All Hazards

Worth Defending At All Hazards

Ken
“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.”

It  wasn’t that long ago that most of us were happily oblivious to the world beyond our families and our jobs.  Others of us were involved in politics by being loyal to a political party.  A few of us were involved in the battle against the tyranny lurking beneath the surface anxiously awaiting its invitation.

In an ideal world, most people should be able to spend their lives in the first group, blissfully ignorant of what the government is doing.  In fact, for most of our history, the government was not a factor in the average citizen’s life.  That time has passed though.  It is unlikely that we will ever again be able to take leave from our vigilance in defense of our liberties.

We are drawn into this cause of liberty because of a sense of responsibility to our ancestors who, as Sam Adams said, “purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood”.  More importantly though, we have a responsibility to ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and future generations.

 We are blessed that we can fight this cause without the violence that our ancestors needed to use.  Our opponents are not taking arms against us, but they have cheated us of our liberties “by the artifices of designing men.”

Our opponents cannot use reason and logic against us.  They have no principles upon which their beliefs are based.  They are materialistic people only value envy, greed, and power over equality under the law, honesty, and the American Dream. In desperation, they use vile words, nasty rhetoric, and outright lies.

We have proven to be better equipped than our opponents.  We have the words and actions of our Founders.  We have the logic of natural rights.  We have the greatest documents ever know to the human race which codify the proper moral society and the subsequent case for freedom; our Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

Our opponents will continue to attack each of these.  In fact, they have already done much damage to the Constitution and rendered the Declaration of Independence insignificant in our public discourse.  Yet in the march of history, liberty always advances.

We need your help, not only to defend against the attacks from our opponents, but also to spread the message of liberty.  It’s not enough to just respond to those who may never understand.  We need to win the hearts and minds of our friends and neighbors by showing them that they are being cheated out of the fruits of their labor and of the rights that they were born exercise.

Please consider getting more active in our cause, whether it is through our organization or one of the many that are allied with us.   

 

“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”