It seems to me that for us citizens of these United States to put so much effort and confidence in a political system that only requires a 51% approval rating in order to do much of anything is very foolish. The Republican party is now engaged in a series of primary elections to determine its selected candidate for the office of president whose name will be put on national ballots to allow us citizens to vote for our “favorite” candidate who will subsequently be sworn into this important world position with a required minimum approval rating of only 51% of our electors. That standard of approval doesn’t seem to be very high to me.
Is a 51% Approval Rating Enough?
Would you buy a car that was only expected to work 51% of the time? How would you feel if the organs in your body were only working in an effective coordinated fashion 51% of the time? How much confidence would you have in the quality of the food at your supermarket if only 51% of it was approved as being “safe”? Thousands of cars are taken off of the market when it is discovered that they have some defect in a part that makes them “dangerous” to operate, even though the danger may have only been detected in a “few” incidents. Drugs are taken off the market if their continued use is determined to be dangerous, even from evidence collected from a relatively “small” sample of users.
The action of most juries in these United States will be dismissed unless their decisions represent the unanimous consent of all of the jurors. And even if only one of them objects to the decision of the others or is not willing to support it, the jury is considered to be “hung” and they are dismissed. Yet we are willing to accept the legislative decisions of Congress and the political process for the election of our representatives and government officials and even the legal judgments of our Supreme Court on the basis of a standard of only 51% approval or agreement for what they do.
Behind the 51% Approval Rating, there’s a whole 49% with a different opinion
I think that our nation is too divided and the issues are too important for us to be satisfied with such a minimum standard of approval for what we are doing together in the operation of this country. Congress must at least achieve a level of 66% approval for any legislative decision that it makes over the veto of the President, who is just one person in the powerful process. What about the other 49% of the congressional representatives and the other groups of “minorities” that are not represented in the “majority” that received the approved action that is implemented by a “simple majority”?
What do you think of this matter? How serious are the consequences for the legislative decisions that are made with such a minimum 51% approval rating standard? How can we raise our standards for the approval of what we are seeking to do together in this country? Let’s talk about this.
The presidential election was decided by less than 51% of the major electoral votes states. So a small portion of the population of the United States seams to have decided who would lead the country for the next four years. If and when they change the presidential elections to a percentage of the popular vote we will never get past the 51% control of the government. It seams to me that the president is slowly negating the power of congress by “exective orders” and thereby securing total power to do whatever he wants and create his own agenda. Dick
This is an old post; but, according to the results of our latest election, the problem is still with us. President elect Trump and his team indicate that he wants to be President for all of the people of these U. States, indicating that it is time for all of our citizens to come together in a unified way to fix our problems and to preserve the American dream for our citizens and immigrants. But there are even some early signs among our politicians and people that indicate that there is considerable number of them who are not interested in doing this. So although Donald Trump won enough votes in certain specific areas of the country to enable the Electoral College to make him our elected President, the agenda that Hillary Clinton promoted among other citizens in these States won the “popular” vote of the majority of those who voted. And although some representatives in the House and senators in the Senate have been retained and others have been replaced, some of the authoritative leaders of the “opposition” are still in positions where they can hamper any efforts for political action that is contrary to their agendas and that of their constituents. So President elect Trump and the American people are probably going to be facing more “gridlock” in our political procedures to manage the civic business of these States. I don’t know that there is any simple way to achieve “unity” in this process apart from a real revision in the priorities for what is basically important and “right” for the good of all Americans. And then the people would have to make these revised priorities known to the appropriate officials in Congress to enable US to “fix” the problems that confront these States. How can this be done? Let’s talk some more about this.