Yet Either
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Just over a year ago in Burma (Myanmar), Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won an election by a landslide. On November 8, 2015, the National League for Democracy won a resounding majority of seats in both the upper and lower houses of parliament. Parliament contains a total of 664-seats, and the NLD won 364-seats. This was the first true election since 1990, which the military annulled. While the people expressed their will, Aung San Suu Kyi said, "Burma is not yet a democracy. We have been given the chance to build a democratic society. We have not yet built one." 
The people in Burma had an election of sorts. However, the military got seats given to them and can veto anything they don't want. Anyone in the rest of the world would agree with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Lady, that her country isn't a democracy...yet. Interestingly, precisely, a year to the day after the Burmese election, the US had an election. Hillary Clinton won 64,874,143 (48.1%) to Donald Trump's 62,516,883 (46.4%). However, Trump will be the next president.
Sixteen years prior, Al Gore got 50,999,897 (48.4%) and George Bush got 50,456,002 (47.9%). Twice, in a matter of sixteen years, two candidates lost the election while receiving more votes than the other candidate.
To paraphrase Aung San Suu Kyi's statement about Burma, "The US is not yet a democracy. We have been given the chance to build a democratic society. We have not yet built one." It doesn't take a genius to determine the answer to why America is not yet a democracy. The Electoral College. There are two factual reasons for having the Electoral College. One reason was that the Founding Fathers didn't trust the average, white, American male to decide upon the president of the United States. Obviously, America didn't trust women to even vote until 1920. The race issue was decided, more or less, as the result of the Civil War, but, especially in the South, blacks still have major problems voting. By the early 1800s, America had political parties, unlike in the time of the Founding Fathers. The 12th Amendment came into effect in 1804, primarily to resolve the conflict between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The conflict arose primarily because the North had more people that could vote than the South. While the South had more people, the population included a half million slaves who couldn't vote. Nonetheless, the slaves were included for the Electoral College. This tilted the advantage of the slaveholding Southern states to have more electors based upon their slaves who couldn't vote anyway. To anyone in the world, that isn't a democracy...yet. We, like the Burmese, have been given a chance to build a democratic society...if we seize the opportunity. The Lady is doing her part to ensure that her people live in a democratic society. I have wanted to sit down and talk to her about many issues that we share. We have danced with death, which has positively affected our lives. Nonetheless, we don't have a democracy yet in America. I'll be embarrassed to attempt to explain this truth to the Lady. However, both Burma and America still "have been given the chance to build a democratic society. We have not yet built one."
Visit the Burma Independence page to read more about this topic.
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Visit the The Last Lecture page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Dancing with Death page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Donald the Dumb page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Best and Worst of Times page to read more about this topic. 01/06/17 Follow @mountain_and_me |
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