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From: ward@hao.UUCP (Mike Ward)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: A vote for "nobody" this November
Message-ID: <1192@hao.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 6-Oct-84 13:12:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: hao.1192
Posted: Sat Oct  6 13:12:59 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Oct-84 21:56:27 EDT
References: <4297@fortune.UUCP> <583@erix.UUCP>
Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 27

> One 
> thing that I don't understand about the American presidential elections, is why
> must the president be elected by all the people in the country? Why couldn't
> he (she?) be elected by congress or the senate?

One of the greatest things we've got going for us in the US is
the principle of separation of powers.  It's kind of a "balance
of greed".  This principle states that, if the different entities
of the government are granted separate and independent powers,
they will spend most of their time and energy squabbling over
who is able to what, and leave the rest of us alone.  When this
works, we in the US do very well.  But when the various units
of government lose their political health, and have an attack of 
cooperation, then we tend to suffer.

The very worst thing that could happen to us is the adoption
of the Parliamentary system.  The two party system is not written
in our Constitution, but in our character, and even with our
fragmented form of government, concentrations of power erupt
all too frequently.

-- 
Michael Ward, NCAR/SCD
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