Repeal the 12th Amendment
A photo of my dog Sky (a black German Shepherd) and Dug (a golden retriever).
This is part of my series on how I want us to be better than Switzerland. One of the things that I would like to see is a more united nation, and I think one of the ways to do that, simply, is to repeat the 12th Amendment of the Constitution.
A Country With Multiple Presidents
When I traveled to Switzerland and learned about it, I was surprised to discover that they do not have one president; instead, they have seven, similar to the nine members of the Supreme Court. The problem, the Swiss believe, with a single president is that it is a winner-takes-all approach. The winner gets the power and the runner-up does not. This leads to a society in which a large portion of the population is disenfranchised. Their vote doesn’t matter.
Currently: The Winner Takes All
Currently, if a Republican candidate is elected president, we have the vice president that they selected. Anyone who did not vote for that person has no say. They are not represented in the executive branch of the government. This leads to division among the people because the people who didn’t vote for them are not represented.
The Vice President Was the Runner Up
Think back to the last presidential election. Now imagine that whichever candidate came in second was the vice president. That was the intent of the initial constitution. The Founding Fathers intended that the winner of the presidential election would be the president, and whoever came in second would be the vice president. I feel that this leads to a better representation of the will of the people, and it’s something that I think we should return to.
The 12th Amendment
The 12th Amendment amends the Constitution so that both the president and vice-president are from the same political party and “team.” It was created in 1800, shortly after the Constitution was written. It was created because it was felt that having two opposing candidates in office together would create gridlock and make it difficult for things to get done.
But I think that’s exactly what we want. We want people to learn to work together rather than have an us-versus-them approach. This is what creates conflict. This is what makes us weak. One of the strategies that can be used to defeat an enemy, especially a big one, is to create division and civil war. Let them destroy themselves.
If we want to be strong, we have to work together. I want to see us more united and tolerant. Just because we do not always agree, it doesn’t mean that we can’t find common ground and solutions that work for everyone.
A See-Saw Government
While it seems true that if a president and vice president are on the same ticket, they can work more constructively, those changes are often undone in the next election when it swings back the other way. Power is not about being elected. Power comes ultimately from the will of the people, and if the people are not fairly represented, then the government and the country will be unstable. They are susceptible to attacks from outsiders, both militarily and economically.
Repeal the 12th Amendent
A simple solution to this is to repeal the 12th Amendment. What do you think?
