Disagreeable Aspects of the Legislative, Term Paper

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The first amendment to the Constitution in the Bill of Rights states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This provision has been the justification for entirely removing prayer from schools and the mention of God from public places. This may not have been the intention of the Framers. They were concerned that the government could not establish an official state religion, as had been done in many countries in Europe. They did not intend to eliminate religion from public life.

The problem with judicial activism is that it becomes very hard to stop once it begins. As stated, while most would agree that a right to privacy is desirable, what about other rights or privileges with which the majority would not agree. The Constitution was designed with a process to amend it as conditions change. The Framers anticipated that from time to time it would become necessary to alter it or add to it, but they might the process difficult so that only those changes that had widespread support would be enacted. They did not anticipate that the judicial branch would bypass these checks and balances and change the Constitution without public debate.

The current system of electing the President of the United States requires that the voters of each state vote for electors, and not directly for the President. This system was devised by the Framers because they did not trust the people and because it was part of a compromise that would allow the small states to have more influence in presidential elections than would be possible if the election was decided based upon the popular vote. What the Framers did not anticipate is that the system would work in the opposite way, currently giving some states little or no decision in the outcome.

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It is a cumbersome situation and it is time for the electoral college to be replaced with election by popular vote.

When was the last time that a Presidential candidate visited Hawaii or Wyoming during the course of a presidential election? Why did Presidential Bush spend almost no money and little time in Texas, with its large number of electoral votes, during the 2000 and 2004 election? The answer is that for many of the people in these states, their vote did not matter. Hawaii and Wyoming have three electoral votes apiece, which is hardly likely to make them decisive in the election. Texas, being the home state of the President, was likely to vote for him, so spending money there would have been wasteful. For those citizens that did not intend to vote for the President, their vote had little meaning, as he was likely to win the state by a large margin, and did.

On occasion the electoral college has produced unintended results. Twice in our history, the election has been decided by the House of Representatives. In recent years, three elections have resulted in the election of a President who did not win a majority of the popular vote (President Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and President Bush in 2000). In the election of 2000, President Bush was elected President based upon the outcome of the electoral college, in spite of the fact that his opponent had more votes. It is time that this system was changed and the Constitution amended to eliminate the electoral college and require direct election of the President by the voters......

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