Bill Sykes' - In Retrospect
X.
(February 2008)
Bill Sykes
looks back in retrospect at material which has been published
in previous editions of "View from America",
in an attempt to determine whether the subject matter
written then is still applicable in today’s world.
Article #10F. The American Presidential
Election.
(Continued from the "Introduction
to Article #10" article).
On the Democratic side, I'm not completely comfortable
with Hillary Clinton's past liberal tendencies and
her initial support of the war in Iraq, and I'm also
uncomfortable with how Barak Obama's Muslim background would react to both the
demands of the American people and the Muslim world on foreign policy issues.
On the Republican side, we have Huckabee and Romney, both with strong religious
backgrounds and the support anticipated from a religious following. Their
strong religious beliefs and backgrounds make them both none starters in my line
up.
Then of course there is McCain who didn’t fare too well in the initial
primaries.
Being an "independent" voter I choose to vote for a candidate who
has the best interests of the American people at heart.
The candidates of course make all kinds of promises about things they will
institute if and when they get into power, knowing full well that in general
they don’t have a cat in hell’s chance of keeping those promises.
But there again, that’s the way political wars are conducted - promise
the proletariat anything and everything that they want and give them nothing.
The American people have been conned for so long into believing that they
elect the President of the United States, which of course is a complete fallacy.
We the people certainly deserve better from our elected representatives in Washington
D.C. where large monetary contributions are prime factors in electing a President,
plus of course with respect to the Presidential election there is the final complication,
which I will call a last recourse situation, where the electoral college could
be the real deciders who shall be President.
Trying to make sense of the American methods of voting for a President:
As I have said previously, I’m not a constitutional scholar but I will
try to give you an interpretation of what a "caucus" is, as defined
in the American voting procedure for a President.
An American caucus is a group of qualified voters, from a certain voting district,
(which apparently is determined by each state), meeting to pick a delegate for
President - I have obviously mentioned previously that I consider this to be
the dis-United States, because each state has different rules and regulations
for practically everything that one can think of, which includes voting for the
President of the United States.
In the smaller states the people of certain districts
get together for a two hour meeting to discuss with each
other - -that must be an interesting get together - who
in their opinion should be the Presidential nominee for
their party. Republicans meet with Republicans and Democrats
meet with Democrats and a decision is made by "secret"
ballot which takes place at the same meeting, which again
should be interesting as I’ve yet to meet an American
that can keep a secret for more than a few minutes.
Oh dear, oh dear, if there is a complex way of doing
something which is open to interpretation, or even corruption,
trust a group of Americans to find
it.
As I said the caucuses are only done in the smaller states
as it would be impossible to conduct such a series of
meetings in the larger states.
Now we come to a secondary phase, the Primaries:
The above fiasco is followed by a series of "Primaries",
which are conducted in the larger states and looks very much like an election,
with one proviso, only registered members of a political party can vote for
the nominee of that party, but in this case nobody discusses the issues before
hand they just vote.
Of course if you a registered independent voter you don’t
get a say in the matter of choosing a President until
the actual voting day where you are presented with the
choice of voting for one of the individuals who have
previously been selected and nominated for each of the
two parties - you can vote for either the Republican
nominee or the Democratic nominee to be President of
the United States.
I wish there was a place on the voting panel saying "none
of the above".
In my opinion the time has come to revamp the whole
system - stop the two years of preliminary and continuous
daily, nay hourly, bombardment of the people with the
current situation of the political process on all the
news media sources prior to the election, ie:
reduce the whole process to six months prior to the actual
election - stop the religious support of candidates
- which of course I have no idea how that could be accomplished
as religious support plays a large part in not only the
American election process but in election processes
world wide, reduce the number of official candidates
for the presidency - reduce the large monetary support
of any and all candidates to a nominal sum, of say a
maximum of $10,000 per individual or per company.
There are, many more changes that I would like to see
but for now, enough is enough.
Note#1:
The United States Presidential elections of 2008, scheduled
to be held on the 4th November 2008,
will be the 56th conservative election for the President
and Vice-President of the United States.
The election of course coincides with the 2008 Senate,
House, and other elections.
Article two of the United States Constitution, as amended
by the twelfth amendment, states that an Electoral College
will elect the President. There it is in black and
white.
Note#2: With respect
to legality of citizenship in the voting process.
Prior to the time that we as a family were granted emigration
"green card" visas to proceed to the United
States on the last day of December 1966, we had to spend
a complete day at the American Embassy in London to go
through a personal grilling by the Embassy staff.
The whole family had to have complete medical examinations,
including chest "X" rays to prove that we
had no infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, we
were then photographed and fingerprinted, and had to
go through numerous background checks. This included,
myself signing a statement that I personally had a job
to go to which would not deprive an American citizen
of a similar job opportunity, and that we were taking
with us sufficient monetary funds so that we would not
become a financial drain upon the American economy. After
five years residence in the United States one can apply
for citizenship.
How things have changed.
Bringing the Presidential election news up to date: February
12, 2008.
Note #3: The current front runners for the presidential nominees
are John McCain, for the Republican Party, and a very close race between
Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama for the Democratic Party.
Let’s hope the people of America don't make the
same mistake as they did when selecting the current President,
by voting for John McCain, (who wasn't even
born in this country), into power as President.
From the information that I've gathered, although he
was born of American parents, Admiral John Sydney McCain,
(from Indiana), and Roberta (Wright), McCain, (From Oklahoma),
he wasn't even born upon American soil, he was born on
the 29th of August 1936 in of all places the
Spanish Panama Canal Zone.
He may have been a war hero in the Vietnam war,
but from his recent remarks he still is a war oriented
individual as apparently he stated that if he became
President that not only would he continue the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he would expand them.
The win at all cost syndrome. (See the May
2005 issue of "View from America").
My question: Why would anyone want to send more
American soldiers to their deaths in two unwinnable
wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, and where could that person
find the necessary troops which would be needed to expand
those current wars?
Disclaimer.
Some of the information gathered for this news letter
has been gleaned from American and International media
sources, (including the Internet), and as such is quoted
as accurately as possible. I try to obtain confirmation
from several outlets, so the text is a mixture of composite
news items and personal comments and therefore the
reader must make his/her own judgement as to the reliability
and degree of accuracy of the subjects discussed.
We
welcome feedback about any of the contents of these articles.
Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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