In June, this writer ran a two-part series in this space about the dangers of the so-called "National Popular Vote" movement. We discussed how smaller States would be left without having their voices heard under the plan, and the will of the people within a given State might very well be subverted under the "National Popular Vote" bill. The idea sounds good until one looks at the specifics. Under the plan, if a majority of States (those which would equal 270 Electoral College votes-an electoral vote majority) were to adopt this legislation, the plan would become effective, and would require the States which adopt it to throw their presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who actually wins a given State. If this insidious law had been effective in 2000, it would have thrown Tennessee's presidential electors to Al Gore, despite the fact that George W. Bush won Tennessee. In 2008, an active National Popular Vote Bill would have forced Tennessee to award her presidential electors to Barack Obama, in spite of the reality that Obama lost Tennessee by an overwhelming margin.
The Tennessee Republican Party appeared to take a strong position against such a dangerous notion when our State's Republican National Committeeman, John Ryder, wrote a piece in The Washington Times in June in which he declared that the so-called "National Popular Vote" Bill is constitutionally subversive. The campaign which supporters of this legislation are organizing appears to counter arguments against it within conservative internet outlets using an automated AOL/AIM-based system to feed the same routine arguments, which were often repetitive, through to comment boxes, as appeared to have to be the case every time this columnist wrote about the issue in late May and early June of this year. Of those who did give real, non-anonymous, non-repetitive, and reasoned arguments in favor of the NPV legislation, most of those were Democrats or Democratic sympathizers-which certainly lends credence to the idea that despite the occasional trotting out of our former Senator Fred Thompson (R-Tennessee), and moderate RNC member Saul Anuzis of union-dominated Michigan, the "National Popular Vote" organization is largely a creature of the Left, receiving the backing of neo-Marxists such as the billionaire George Soros-one of Barack Obama's major supporters.
The idea that "National Popular Vote" is really some sort of Leftist political movement masquerading as a bi-partisan popular upheaval is further bolstered by the fact that the factions within the Republican Party which are most likely to compete against each other for control of the GOP are uniting in a push to stop "National Popular Vote" before it really gets started. A resolution by Alaska Republican National Committeewoman Debbie Joslin was on the agenda Wednesday for the Republican National Committee summer meeting in Tampa, and has the support of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Republican Governors' Association Chairman Governor Rick Perry of Texas (a potential candidate for President), and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Comments