The recent Nevada and National elections provide an opportunity for a perspective aside from commenting on the individual wins and losses. One thing for sure, in my mind, the founders of our country did not spend months and months in vain to create the unique system we have to elect our national leader.
The founders of this country, in reaction to the dominance of a faraway absolute monarch, a negative colonial experience and a revolutionary war, created a government unique in the history of mankind.
The solution to their complaints against the tyranny of absolutism was a limited government with three co-equal branches; executive, judicial and legislative so that power could not be concentrated in one or two branches over the others.
As an example, the Electoral College was devised to prevent more populous states from dominating the election of our President. This institution has come under a lot of criticism in recent elections. It is ironic that the Democratic Party complained loud and hard when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 but lost to President Trump in the electoral college because he picked up enough popular votes in three states to give him the election with 306 electors. Of course, they are not complaining now because the electors met and voted the election in favor of Joe Biden.
If there was no Electoral College a candidate for President would be able to win the election by campaigning in very few states while ignoring the rest of the country. TV ads would dominate the election and a candidate would not campaign very hard in places like Iowa, Minnesota or Tennessee. Most of the large population centers of our country are predominantly Democratic so it would be very difficult to achieve a balanced government by occasionally having a Republican President or one or both houses in Congress run by Republicans. Why is this important?
We are seeing this play out as the nation prepares to see if the United States Senate will continue to be run by the Republicans because there is a runoff election for two Senate seats in Georgia currently held by Republicans. If the Democratic candidates win both of these seats the power in the Senate will shift out of Republican hands. There is no black and white in politics just as there isn’t in life as much as many people would like there to be no gray areas. There are always political nuances and this is illustrated by the current drama being played out in Georgia. If a voter wants to see a complete dominance by one party, the Democratic party, even if they do not like the candidates then they will vote for dominance over balance.
If all the power in our national elected government, the Executive and Legislative branches was lodged in one party, the Democratic party, I believe this would go against the wishes of our founding fathers. I also believe there is something almost in the DNA of the voters in this country which reflects this visceral reaction against one faction or party domination by our elected officials. That is why the Georgia election has captured the attention of people outside of Georgia.
This phenomenon was also illustrated in the election results here in Nevada. There was a fundamental change in Nevada’s Legislature reflecting the founder’s original intent. Prior to the election, the Nevada State Assembly had what is known as a super-majority. This means that house could pass new taxes and could override the Governor’s veto of one of their bills with just Democrat votes.
Additionally, the Nevada Senate needed one more Democrat Senator to achieve the same super-majority status. The common pre-election wisdom was the Assembly would retain their status and the Senate could pick up its needed seat. The result of this outcome would have been a complete dominance by one political party in this state.
However, Republicans flipped three seats in the Assembly and gained one seat in the Senate. Thus, even though the Democrats control both houses of the Legislature and the Governor is a Democrat, some balance has been restored and the two parties will have to work together to solve some of Nevada’s pressing problems caused by the COVID 19 pandemic including significant budget deficits.
As of this writing, it appears one of the Republicans will retain their seat in Georgia which means the U.S. Senate will remain narrowly controlled by the Republican Party. I believe this helps to support my argument the voters have expressed a desire for a balanced government.
Thus, as reflected in some of the 2020 election results, one unintended consequence of the founder’s vision to create a limited government might also be a voter instinct that favors a balanced system of compromise, conservative action and limitations inherent in each of the co-equal branches of our unique government which militates against complete dominance by one faction over another.
Therefore, even if the election results did not go the way you wanted, from a larger viewpoint whether a Republican, Democrat, affiliated with some other party or an Independent, you should take comfort in the notion that a balanced government is a stronger, more representative government.