Does it really matter?

As October is drawing to its end the whole world is looking forward to seeing the biggest event that is going to happen in this early November. Yes, you got it right, the U.S. presidential election. It is important not only to the U.S. and the Americans but to most parts of the world as well because with Trump has stirred the world as well as the U.S. itself upside down in the past four years so people just wonder whether this guy is going to win another term of four years and keeps stirring the world, especially amid the pandemic.

The polling is going to end on November 3 local time so most people think it is the decisive day on the presidency. However, those who know know that November 3 is only last day of the polling by the Americans but actually they do not have the right to vote for their president. It is only the electors in the Electoral College have this right. They are the ones who are really going to decide who is going to be the president of the U.S. and their voting happen on December 14 only so it is more than one good month later than November 3. 

Customary and usually the Electors should align their vote with the popular vote, ie., the wish of the general Americans in their states to cast their own vote but it is not strictly legal bidding. That is to say, the vote from the general Americans does not necessarily reflect the result of the election even if a candidate has won a majority of ballots on November 3. The result on December 14 after the electoral college voting is after all the real one. The fact is that electors' vote could be contrary to the popular vote in their states. So folks, just forget the date of November 3 which is just a show of democracy only.

Despite the U.S. is the largest democracy country in the world but judging from its indirect election system, the so-called one person, one vote, is actually a counterfeit. The establishment of the electoral college was actually a big scam to the general Americans and it was done in purpose by the founders of the then newly formed nation. Everybody know that the U.S. was once the colony of the British Empire prior to its independence. After fighting eight years with their original sovereign nation, the colonists finally won the war to form a new born nation. Most of the founders who were responsible for drafting the constitution were lawyers. 

Contrary to most of their fellow who were farmers and laborers that were mostly illiterate, these lawyers were well educated and astute. They engineered the constitution which is in favour to these elites by designing the indirect election system via the establishment of electoral college. The system prevents the general mass, due to their numbers, from electing an inappropriate president under the simple one person, one vote, election system especially when the overall education level of the general mass was still very low thus prone to stupid and emotional decision.

The original intention of the electoral college might sound reasonable under the particular context at that time. However, this system remains unchanged even after two centuries and the general mass of Americans have already received education and most of them are sensible enough to pick their president. Yet, their right is still deprived despite of the name of leader of the democracy world. What an irony!

In fact, it is not only the problem of the crippled election system but the faulty institution to be blamed. Under the current political context in the U.S. that with the oligopoly of the Republic Party and Democratic Party so the Americans are only subjected to a choice of lesser evil when choosing their president. After all, the president of the U.S.A. is only a front stage figurehead of the political party which he represents. The point is that both of these two parties are for the interests of their respective vested interests groups only. None of them is really the guardian of the general mass of the Americans. So does the election really matter to you, Americans?