This entire note is reproduced from my Facebook profile:
As we discuss the Presidential election and the party nomination by the Republicans I am not a member of an early contest state nor a Republican but I pay close attention. Louisiana is entitled not only to its normal share of delegates by general formula but to an additional bonus delegate for having Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, another bonus delegate for having Senator David Vitter as a Republican voice. Further Louisiana has a bonus delegate because the House of Representatives in the Louisiana State Legislature is majority Republican. Frankly, I am not sure if the Louisiana State Senate has a Republican majority, nor if the Louisiana delegation to the House of Representatives has a Republican Majority but Louisiana may be entitled to other bonus delegates there or not. All these details and agreements and distinctions show how tied the Conventions are to the whole struggle of either party as well as to our Federal Constitution and our political theory. The desire to call forth and create a nominee of either party after Iowa and New Hampshire has been part of the campaign of treason by large television companies. These powers are ivested in showing the importance of the big television buys and excluding anyone who cannot make big buys from being considered a candidate. WHen given broadcast spectrum the large networks take on public trust. They should be forced to uphold public trust and pay for the spectrum of frquency and they should have been prosecuted for treason. Remember Dan Rather calling Florida for Gore? That was the tip of the iceberg. The trason they have long perpetrated has been an attempt to play the role in our elections which the Communist Party played in Soviet elections in the seventies. There is still a popular vote in such systems but its meaning has been taken away. America tells other people how to have elections but our own system has very little legitimacy. the party conventions are supposed to nominate after elections and caucuses in all the States.
The Networks have a tradition of treason and used to call the election night before California polls had closed. The media as a whole still disenfranchise military and overseas voters. We3 have an electoral college and a long delay that would cover such matters. It may be we cannot afford such delays but then we should admit that we cannot afford constitutional government.
I write as a bitter person whose life in many ways is worse than he could ever have imagined and therefore clearly my view of the country is more bleak than most. But most countries would have shown vastly more outrage if their perogative had been assaulted the way ours have been all my life. It is madness and outrage met with smiles and tolerance.
I live and am a registered voter in the State of Louisiana in the United States of America. I am registered in the Parish of Vermilion with my Parish Registrar of Voters. I am not a Republican. I was once registered as a Democrat and I have been registered as an Independent for a very good while now. I usually vote in all elections for which I am eligible to vote although there are exceptions. For decades now Louisiana has been a largely open primary state although there have been races in this current period when one or more parties (most often the Republicans) have managed to to close their primary. I have not verified whether Louisiana will have any particular type of primary in this Presidential election. I am writing about the Republican Presidential Nomination Process more as an American Citizen.
I think that there are times for most people when one’s own life seems to be going against the trends for other people and society as a whole. This can be as brief as a sad even on a holiday or an inescapably happy event on a day of national tragedy. The wedding or birth on the sad day or the death of a loved one near Christmas or Thanksgiving simply must be attended to and one is aware of the contrast. Then there are larger trends. In States like Louisiana the rising price of oil and natural gas often boost the economy while the same process slows the national economy. One could go on listing such instances for a very long time. However, there is another sense in which each of us is tied to the welfare and fortunes of our own countries, civilization and the world as a whole. There is a real sense in which we are tied to the destiny of those large institutions and structures which shape our lives and world. We are all part of world in which transitions are noted by many. It may be that Obama will be President next term no matter who the Republicans nominate but the purpose of the nomination is to prepare for a large change.
I am writing this note in part as my first lengthy comment on this particular Republican nomination process. However, the note has a much broader topic as well and also discusses the primaries and caucuses from a particular point of view. I for one am willing to say that I think elections are a good thing. I will probably write more about this election as time goes on. I recently began my process of commenting on these electoral events here on Facebook with the following status:
“Well, it is an ongoing struggle for the Republican Nomination. Santorum won Iowa, Romney has won New Hampshire and Florida and Gingrich has won South Carolina. I hope to post a not with my thoughts on the primary as well a video I am working on of my family’s recent doings. But I respect all those who continue to contest this race and believe Hillary and Barack did the right thing in fighting it out last term. It is not decent in our society that so so many modern nominations were decided so far before the conventions. It really has not been decent the reasons are multiple and obvious… But I hope to write about them more soon.”
These feelings that the process is still worthwhile do not come without effort and cost when I express them. I am in many ways deeply disillusioned. Yet so long as the process continues it does many good things for our deeply troubled country.
I believe that our processes, an indeed the processes of all governments are important. In fact it is an effort to have a good process which is much of the defining quality of good government. I may feel our government is in part a wreck and that some parts of it have been blown to bits by recent trends and that it was neve perfect. Yet, much as my own imperfect and troubled life has not led me to commit suicide as yet, I do not believe we can abandon the struggle to perfect and preserve our government. There is a great deal left to the tiny remnants and wreckage I am choosing to write about in this Note.
When Parliamentary Parties have a leadership election and then contest a general election all the members must be leceted and then form a majority to elect their party leader as leader of parliament. But under the treason of our television networks most people have no voice at all. They have no conscious and are profoundly corrupt. Part of our problem comes from their desire to imitate Europe. But they o not understand Europe. I am not entirely cut off from European and British politics. I seek to stay aware of them as they seek to stay aware of us. However parts of each system cannot be easily interchanged and mixed and matched.
This has been a topic I have begun to discuss elsewhere as well:
http://nortonview.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/it-is-not-in-the-manifesto/#comment-4666
Frank W. Summers III says:
January 30, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Loed Norton,I am sure you are aware of the very nebulous “platform(s)” of American Presidential politics and congressional politics and how they compare with the relatively fixed and specific manifestos of British Parliamentary parties. Which, however vaguely worded one can pick up in hand and say — “This and no other document is our specific manifesto for this current Parliament”. This phenomena relates to larger issues. It is tied to a certain view of governmental technique and expertise. Although Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, now President Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have all written books — none of them have a history of writing, editing and publishing books and short documents on the technical and political aspects of governance — Newt Gingrich does. Should Speaker Gingrich be elected President then I think, for the first time since Wilson, the British and the top tier of European governments and parliaments will be dealing with an American administration which is at the top their equal and peer in technical,legislative and theoretical matters. Of Course Woodrow Wilson was no great success in the end. I am speaking merely of professionalism in the broadest sense.
I am not endorsing nor pointedly failing to endorse Speaker Gingrich. It is too early in the process for me to do either but he is more akin to your own milieu from a technical point of view than even such a well prepared president as George H. W. Bush, a “wonk” such as Clinton, or the highly intelligent Carter. He would represent a profound shift in the national attitude towards governmental expertise. This has not much been reported but is really significant.
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Lord Norton says:
January 31, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Frank W. Summers III: Indeed, I am aware of Newt Gingrich’s background; not that much is made of the fact of his PhD (or the topic of his thesis). I am also aware that he is fighting as an outsider despite being an experienced insider.
I could not help noting that he took great offence – regarding it is wholly inappropriate – to be questioned about his attitudes to marriage and infidelity, a stance I note he did not take when President Clinton was being challenged on the matter!
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Frank W. Summers III says:
February 1, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Lord Norton,I am pleased but not surprised to see you are staying abreast of these matters…
It is a time when civil disobedience, lawsuits and other matters may be rquired to save and restore our constitutional tradition. That is why I am not as cautious as I would otherwise be in worrying abolut copyright and libel concerns. Liberty has been assaulted all my life in dulcet tones and shiny lights. I will raise my small laptop screen in its defense while I can. I recognize that things can change. In fact I have advocated change in large measure using a constitutional convention. But even that change I advocate is within the parameters of our constitutional traditions.
I am writing this Facebook note in part as to discuss what constitutional free elections may entail and signify, using this particular Republican nomination process as an instance. However, the note’s broader topic of what government, liberty and constitutionalism mean continues to demand far more space and time than I can include in this effort. Perhaps during this season I will return to these matters and discuss one or another of the primaries and caucuses from a particular point of view that shows how federalism, democracy, justice or constitutionalism affect or are illustrated by one or more of these contests. I for one am willing to say that I think having most of these elections effectively and truly contested is a good thing. Much of our Constitution has been stolen and defiled but this process shows that it is not entirely dead.
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