The Electoral College

          The Electoral College was created for a number of reasons.  One reason is because there was a fear of factions in the United States.  The electoral college would prevent the largest faction or group from being able to rule unfairly.  The Electoral College also protects those with money and power, which tend to be the fewer.  In short, a main reason it was created was the fact that our forefathers feared the large masses of poor and for the security of private property.  The Electoral College allows the federals and the states to run the elections.  This is an example of indirect democracy, which protects the elite from the poor.  I believe that this system was fair for the time period (1787) it was designed for because then, most of the elite and powerful were those who were the most educated.  It is clear that times have changed and for the time period we are in now, I think it is a bit unfair.  People today realize that brilliance can come from anywhere and a great amount of money is not necessarily needed to become well educated.  The Electoral College has failed on numerous occasions, one of them being in 1800.  The Democratic-Republican electors gave both Thomas JEfferson and Aaron Burr an equal number of Electoral votes.  Because it was a tie, it had to be settled in the House of Representatives, which eventually came in Jefferson's favor.  Because of this failure in the system, the twelfth amendment was made to prevent a tie from ever happening again.

Head of State: Satires and the Evolution of Gilliam

         
          The movie Head of State makes a comedic attack on an electoral system where candidates don't say what they actually  think but simply repeat safe centrist platitudes.  This movie satirizes the nature of political parties in many ways such as the way the campaigns are run and what is said to each party to gain votes.  The candidates mainly only say what their party wants to hear in order to be elected, not exactly what they believe.  It also satirizes how a candidate may pretend to care about topics on camera and when off camera, he couldn't care less.  For example when on camera, Brian Lewis gave a small speech about how important the children are and their safety is but off camera, it was easy to tell he was faking his interest.  This movie shows how people don't always know as much as they think they know when it comes to what is going on behind the scenes in politics.

          Mays Gilliam evolves greatly throughout his candidacy.  He begins his campaign very unaware of the power he holds and  only saying what he is told to say by his advisors/campaign managers.  He is told exactly what to say and how to say it.  It is clear that he doesn't understand that he also has a voice and can use this opportunity to make the kind of differences he wishes to.  After a talk with his brother Gilliam starts to realize that he can voice his own opinions and make a difference in the county that he believes in.  As he visits more states, he gets into the grove of how to run his own campaign.  Gilliam really begins taking over and coming up with his own ideas and stratagies after learning that his advisors didn't actually believe in him.  He starts saying the things that he truly believes in and what most of the population believes in also.  Once Gilliam does this, he gains more and more votes until he eventually wins the election.