Just a bit more on the election --

This was originally posted as an answer to a question here, on johnkerry04, but I thought overseas folks on my f'list might be interested.

When we vote, we're not actually voting for the president, we're voting for the Electors. An Elector is like a Senator or Congressman -- someone who represents the people and votes on their behalf. And each state gets one Elector for each Congressman and each Senator. So Virginia (where I am, now) has 11 Congressmen and 2 Senators = 13 electoral votes.

This seemed like a good idea at the time because back in the 18th century, it was so hard for people to travel that they rarely lived more than 5 miles away from where they were born their entire lives. So you elected a representative to travel for you, and they will later meet (in December, I think), and cast their votes.

Also, the founding fathers worried that the everyday people weren't educated enough to make the final decision for themselves. So they thought it would be better if more educated folk did the actual voting.

But just like Congressmen and Senators, Electors are fully within their rights to change their minds when it comes to casting votes (four years ago, one elector for D.C. abstained from voting as a protest for the fact that D.C. isn't allowed to have a senator or congressman).

Yesterday, after listening to a talk show about the electoral college, I got this idea: Since we're voting for the Electors, it's they who should do most of the campaigning, rather than the presidential candidates (though the presidential candidates could make a few star appearences). How can it be that we're voting for representatives, and we don't even know their names, or how they were selected? Besides, that way, the presidential candidates would each get their message out in every congressional district in the nation -- without spending millions of dollars on travel, criss-crossing the country to visit only a fraction of the states. And that way, presidents could stay at the White House, overseeing important affairs of state, and Senators, Congressmen and Governors could stay at their jobs, too...
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Earlier this afternoon, I had these thoughts: (voiced in #DWC before this):

It seems the people who cast majority votes were voting primarily out of fear -- fear of terrorists, fear of Americans who're different, etc. So -- rather than yelling at them for being wrong, the rest of us should figure out how to talk about important issues in a way that addresses people's fears without pandering to them. We have to reframe the discussion... and we should do it over the next two years, in time for the next rotation of congressional elections.

A daunting task, but we're smart, and optimistic, and, as Dad pointed out to me in the wee early morning, we're the ones with a better grasp of the facts.... We're also 49% of the country...

Still, we don't have time to wallow in anger, regret, or blame. Let's get to work!