Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
I find it hard to believe that elections were as expensive as they are now or that business had as much influence over key issues gripping the nation so in earnest please let me know what historical sources I'm missing. I'm pretty doubtful we're in an age "just like it's always been".
Also as to street pharmas post, Trump is not a solution to toppling the apple cart because he's an exact construct of the system, it's just he's run a campaign marketing that he is the man fighting the machine. We know that the gyst of his campaign is lies, he will not institute the change to the system that's needed and you know that, come on.
I'm of the opinion that the system will change eventually but it'll be more in the form of revolution once the divide between rich and poor grows to unsustainable levels and the realization of the American Dream no longer existing for the majority of the population manifests itself into something much more concerning. I hope my pessimistic view is wrong and I hope that if I'm right it's not in my lifetime.
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Well, in 1800, New York had a state election, important because the members of the Electoral College for New York would be chosen by the State Legislature, control that and you get all New York's EC votes.
New York City voted as a whole for all it's state reps. 13 reps, chosen based on city-wide votes.
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton faced off as the people behind the Republican (today's Democrats) and Federalist parties, respectively.
At the time, all the banks in New York were Federalist, meaning artisans, crafters, and merchants couldn't express Republican sentiment or face losing access to credit, so Burr founded a whole new bank. With the funds of this bank and the merchants who could now be political without fear of economic reprisal, Burr organized a get-out-the-vote effort in the poor/immigrant 6th and 7th wards which ultimately handed New York's legislature to the Republicans.
Hamilton then tried to get the lame-duck state legislature to switch the way New York picked it's Electors, trying to get them to go to a district-by-district election. This exact proposal had, in fact, just recently been REJECTED by Hamilton's Federalists when they thought they were going to get all New York's EC's.
John Jay, then governor, did not effect Hamilton's proposal.
Terrified of Jefferson, Federalists would write: "Merchants, your ships will be condemned to rot in your harbors, for Jefferson will destroy the Navy. The temples of the most high will be profaned by impious orgies to the Goddess of Reason."
A Magnificent Catastrophe, Edward J. Larson.