Dan Smoot Report #409
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THE o IJtlll Sm oot lIe,ort Vol. 9, No. 24 (Broadcast 409) June 17, 1963 Dallas, Texas DAN SMOOT POLITICAL ACTION FOR 1964 The frenzied and threatening attack on ttright-wingers"; the farmers' vote in the 1963 Wheat Referendum; the fact that much of President Kennedy's major legislative program is still being delayed, if not stopped, in Congress; the fact that (so far, at least) the present Congress is voting more nearly in compliance with constitutional principles than any previous Congress has voted for years; the fact that many Americans, previously apathetic about governmental policies, are now gravely concerned about the direction of affairs in Washington; the fact that even Americans who have always supported the policies of totalitarian liberalism are now outraged by the gangster-like behavior of the Kennedy Administration - these are a few of the signs that a prolonged educational effort by constitutional conservatives has begun to have profound effect. o If the educational work is continued, and supplemented by intelligent political action from now until election day, 1964, we can turn the tide against totalitarian liberalism. Independent Electors T he American Founding Fathers realized that voters on the frontiers and in remote areas of the Republic in the 18th Century could not get enough information about national candidates to make an informed choice at the polls. Hence, they devised the Electoral College system. Voters in each state would elect a group of respected local men (equal in number to the state's total delegation in Congress) , to serve as Presidential Electors. At a fixed time, the elected Presidential Electors from all states would meet, as an Electoral College, to choose a President and Vice President of the United States. The Electors were to be independent, as . individuals, to cast their votes in the Electoral College, as they saw fit. If members of the Electoral College could not muster a majority vote for one man as President, the presi- THE DAN SMOOT REPORT, a magazine published every week by The Dan Smoot Report, Inc., mailing address P. O. Box 9538, Lakewood Station, Dallas 14, Texas, Telephone TAylor 1-2303 (Office Address 6441 Gaston Avenue ). Subscription rates : $10.00 a year, $6.00 for 6 months, $18.00 for two years. For first class mail $12.50 a year; by airmail (including APO and FPO ) $14.50 a year. Reprints of specific issues : 1 copy for 25¢; 6 for $1.00; 50 for $5.50; 100 for $10.00 - each price for bulk mailing to one person. Add 2% sales tax on all orders originating in Texas for Texas delivery. o Copyright by Dan Smoot, 1963. Second class mail privilege authorized at Dallas, Texas. No reproductions permitted. Page 185 dential election would be deadlocked; and the T he remarkable group of statesmen now House of Representatives (each State having known as the Founding Fathers, who wrote one vote) would elect a President. our Constitution in 1787, believed that the This arrangement is still in existence. As the Electoral College System - affording the peo party system came to dominate American poli ple some insulation against the heat and pas tics, however, the intent and functioning of sions of a national election, and providing a the Electoral College system were violated by checkmate against the popular tendency to the so-called "party pledge" which was pre follow blindly the most flamboyant or extrav sumed to be binding upon Presidential Elec agantly financed candidate - would have a tors; and by the custom of "bloc voting" in better chance to put great men into the Presi the Electoral College. dency than any system of direct elections could possibly have. As the system now works, Democrats and Republicans each select, in every state, a slate I agree with this view. The present system of Presidential Electors to appear on the bal produces Presidents who promise one thing lot in the general election. Voters seldom know and then, after election, move in the opposite the names of the Presidential Electors. Most direction - claiming some emergency as the voters do not seem to realize they are voting reason: in 1932, Roosevelt promised the people for electors: they think they are voting for economy and adherence to constitutional presidential and vice-presidential candidates. principles, but gave them extravagance and But, in reality, as vo.ters choose between Re contempt for the Constitution from 1933 on publican and Democrat nominees, they are ward; in 1940, Roosevelt promised the people actually voting, not for the nominees, but for peace, while arranging a war; in 1952, Eisen Republican or Democrat electors in their hower condemned such dangerous programs as State. The party electors, who get a majority federal aid to education and promised to clean of the popular vote, cast the state's entire up the mess in Washington, but, after election, electoral vote for party nominees. recommended more federal aid to education than any previous President and made the Washington mess messier; in 1960, Kennedy Today, there is more practical need for the promised a firm policy with regard to Cuba, pure, constitutional Electoral College System but in 1961 made the weak Eisenhower policy of selecting a President than there was in the even weaker. 18th Century. Today, the techniques of mass propaganda and mass thought-control make Obviously, a President chosen by the Elec it even more impossible for the average voter toral College in the true spirit of the Constitu to get credible information about a national tion might also betray his campaign promises; personality running for President. but the constitutional way of electing Presi dents and Vice Presidents of the United States Present election practices enable political is, at least, the best known way for this solemn parties to stampede the public into making a responsibility to be discharged. Certainly, as choice between two presidential candidates long as it is the constitutionally prescribed who stand for the same thing - leaving voters method, it is the one that should be used. no opportunity to register a preference for a philosophy of government, but permitting - them only to choose between men whose real The Independent Electors Movement philosophies and personalities have been ob now very strong in the states of Alabama, scured by the bitterness and dishonesty of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi - party rivalry and by the thunder of political is an effort to re-establish the brilliantly-con propaganda. ceived Electoral College System of selecting Page 186 Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United nedy Democrats and Rockefeller Republicans States. in the South than elsewhere, and believe that, if constitutional conservatives can control the But political habits generations old have 128 electoral votes of the South, they can con tainted, to some degree, operation of the Inde trol the presidential election in 1964 - or, pendent Electors Movement. In 1960, for ex at least, deny victory to either Kennedy or ample, voters in six southern states did "free" Rockefeller. their electors: they elected men, on Democrat tickets, who were not pledged to support Ken Independent Voters will try to get third nedy. It was known that those who supported party electors for presidential and vice-presi the Independent Electors Movement in these dential candidates on the ballot in all southern six states expected their Electors not to vote states. Some, or all, of the 11 southern states for Kennedy, under any circumstance. When may agree on the same third party and the the Electoral College met, however, only the same candidates; or, each state may have an Independent Electors of Mississippi, and half independent third party, running its own can of those of Alabama refused to vote for Ken didates for President and Vice President. In nedy. Electors of four southern states, and half some southern states, where a respectable third the Alabama electors, though put on the bal party already exists, constitutionalists may lots and elected as "independents," voted for support its effortsto get on the ballot with elec Kennedy in the Electoral College. tors who will vote only for constitutionalist candidates. In other states, constitutionalists Independent Voters of the USA may organize a new party. The idea is to get on the ballot, in every I n addition to the Independent Electors southern state, with presidential and vice-pres Movement, and various third-party efforts in idential electors who are constitutionalists. several states, two intelligent plans for politi cal action have originated in Dallas, Texas: Once organized and on the ballot with some Walter Reed's Independent Voters of the USA, kind of constitutionalist third party in 11 and Frank McGehee's Political Coordinating southern states, the Independent Voters will Committee. go to leaders of both major parties and say: If, in your 1964 national convention, you The essence of Walter Reed's plan is a nominate genuine, proven, constitutionalist pledge, which all members of Independent conservatives for President and Vice Presi Voters of the USA, are asked to sign: dent, we will disband our third-party move ments in the southern states and give you ��In the election of 1964, I pledge to sup maximum support. If you do not select candi port only those candidates for President and dates whom constitutionalists like, we will re Vice-President ...who have shown by past double our efforts and guarantee that your actions that they will follow closely the Con candidates will lose the 128 electoral votes of stitution of the United States. If neither the South; and without those southern elec major party nominates such candidates, I shall toral votes, your candidates cannot win. support any third party candidates who I know will follow closely the Constitution.