Renee Parsons<\/p>\n
As the country anxiously awaits its fate after more than 250 years of electoral politics, whether to continue its pedantic path of predictability or to gamble its future on the radical disruption of a dictatorial one party tyranny that would undermine the country\u2019s previous history and traditions.<\/span><\/p>\n From the opening pages of Eugene Roseboom\u2019s \u201cA Short History of Presidential Elections<\/i>\u201d it became clear that the country\u2019s Founders had no preconceived notion of how to construct a politically parochial organization to establish the country\u2019s electoral system in 1789. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n A country born in political revolution, the US, since its inception, continued to be regarded throughout the world as a Christian nation.\u00a0 <\/span>Having fled domination of the British Monarchy, the country\u2019s Founders created the only country to ever adopt a First Amendment establishing that \u201cCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof\u201d <\/i>along with its indispensable commitment to free speech, individual liberty and the equality of personal rights.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Thomas Jefferson\u2019s divinely inspired Preamble to the Declaration of Independence continues to reflect timeless Christian values: \u201cWe hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness<\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The theme persists throughout with the official National motto,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cIn God We Trust<\/i>\u201d which dates back to 1748 just as the prescient Founders followed their God-given instincts to amend the Articles of Confederation into Madison\u2019s Constitutional masterpiece in 1787; a document that launched a rambunctious experiment into what became the world\u2019s first Constitutional Democratic Republic introducing American concepts of self-government, freedom and liberty to the entire world.\u00a0 <\/span>The Constitution was followed by a National Anthem \u201cStar Spangled Banner<\/i>\u201d lyrics inspired by the drama of the American flag that continued to fly over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It was all starting from scratch and was as originally American as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The original system provided for state legislatures to each establish its own election process integrating a popular vote with all electors to meet on the same day.\u00a0 <\/span>They would each vote for two candidates.\u00a0 <\/span>The majority vote would be elected President while the runner up would be Vice President.\u00a0 <\/span>The two Houses of Congress would tabulate the votes with any tie being settled in the House.\u00a0 <\/span>If there was the lack of a majority, the House would ultimately declare the winner.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With no real precedent to follow or preconceived notion of a politically parochial organization in place after the first throes of the American Revolution in 1775, the Federalists inadvertently became the country\u2019s first political party as George Washington\u2019s Presidential candidacy became the avenue by which the Federalists organized his election.\u00a0 <\/span>Given his consummate political and military skill during the Revolution, Washington was always The Man. \u00a0 <\/span>There was no real alternative for the Federalists as they were always aware that they were making history by electing the country\u2019s first President.<\/span><\/p>\n With the touch of elitism, it would come as no surprise to consider that national political parties began within the Cabinet and Congress rather than within what were then considered ordinary, every day lives of Americans. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Given that there were no primaries, no nominating conventions, no campaigning or national balloting and no opinion polls, the election of George Washington was greeted with a unanimity as all sixty nine electors voted for him.\u00a0 <\/span>Although the Vice Presidential election of John Adams was a less harmonious, although logical choice.\u00a0 <\/span>Adams, nevertheless, received only thirty four votes scattering votes to other candidates as he referred to \u201cthe most insignificant\u2026that ever invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n