THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Pat doesn't worry...does he?

Pat Flaharty liked this one from Winston Churchill; "When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the person on his death bed who said that he had a lot of trouble in life, most of which never happened."

VISITING ROTARIANS and GUESTS

Virtual full-timers from the noon club, John Sherry and Alicia Cragholm,

Agatha Sue Lee, sticking around this morning with Cal to hear the featured speaker

Peggy Brennan said hello and thank you from the Cub Scouts in Burton Valley

OTHER HAPPENINGS

Pat Flaharty celebrated a birthday by enriching the Lamorinda endowment coffers.

Steve Ware thanked everyone who helped net $700 from the Westival event last Saturday. Said sum was promptly donated to the Lafayette Elementary school.

Come back, anytime!

Ray Welles is transferring his membership to the Rossmoor club. Seven a.m. Friday mornings in Lafayette just doesn't work for him anymore. We will miss Ray and Jackie but assure them they are welcome anytime to share in our early morning ministrations whenever the spirit, or the alarm clock, moves them.

Outstanding Brad and Paul

Brad Davis reminded everyone that the eighth annual pumpkin carving event at the Garden Park Apartments will take place this Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. Bring the kids and grandkids who always relate well with the kids at the apartments. Brad paid special tribute to Paul Fillinger for graciously volunteering to take family photos at the apartments. This was the first time that many of these families had ever had a family picture.

John Fazel announced another Rush Ranch project coming up on a Saturday in early November. This time we will be building a wall in a barn. More details plus a firm date to follow.

Leander Hauri asked for volunteers for the next HOME Team senior citizen event on Saturday the 27th to help as many as ten households. Workers convene at 8:30 at the Fulcher workshop.

OCTOBERFEST is the TGITLFOTM theme for Friday evening, October 26, 5:30 p.m. at the home of Regina and Hays Englehart. Main food and beer are being provided. Desserts and wine are welcome additions.

CANOE CORNER

This is a new entry for the Newsletter which will be frequently updated as the erstwhile construction team builds an encore vessel to the wildly successful Tippy Canoe. This production is also taking place at the magnificent workshop of maestro Gary Fulcher. Thirteen LSR Rotarians and special friends have signed up for duty on a weekly schedule, to be published in the next edition. Timely updates will be ongoing. As an example of how easily this new project will be coming together, the following is an excerpt of instructions contained in the "Iain Oghtred Plans Supplement" subtitled "Lapstrake Plywood Building Procedure for Acorn Skiffs, Dinghies and Canoes:"

Kallio and Speicher working on the HOG?...ask them

Step 4. The SPALLS are screwed to the BF bearers: the face between the mould and spall goes on the Station line, with the mould on the "inside" - nearest amidships - see Construction Plan. (A12 - 15: the sheerline at Station 1 comes close to the top of BF; the spall is cut out as necessary and reinforced underneath, if necessary).

Now you can readily see why, with such clear-cut and precise instructions, Gary asserts that this job should be a breeze. He insists that every worker read the manual and be prepared for frequent, surprise pop-quizzes. Bets are now being placed as to how long it will be before Gary gets to put this one together...all by himself.

PROGRAM

Rich Shearer did the honors today with a history lesson on U. S. elections entitled:

A Selective History of Past Presidential Elections

- or -

All in All, the 2012 Election is Pretty Mundane

Rich stands tall for this one

According to Rich, this year the early stages of the Republican nomination race featured a surprising number of "How Could They Possibly Get This Far?" names. Rich opined that compared to the three Presidents before Lincoln - Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan - today they would not even be considered fit to run a medium-sized bank. He then took a look at three defining presidential elections from our illustrious past.

1800 Election

This was our FOURTH election. George Washington had served for two terms. He left a great legacy by stepping away from power for the second time. He was followed by John Adams, his Vice President. Thomas Jefferson was Adam's Vice President. The President and the Vice President were not on the same ticket. Adams and Jefferson had been close friends, but ended up on opposite sides of the first party split.

Adams was not well-suited to be president. By all accounts he was honest, hard-working and truly devoted to his country. Also, by all accounts he was thin-skinned, petty, a bad executive and not good at compromise. Jefferson ended up being very much anti-Adams

This was an interesting election for its invectives:

Alexander Hamilton on Adams: "In Adams' character are great and intrinsic defects which make him unfit for high office. He has an imagination sublimated and eccentric, propitious neither to the regular display of sound judgment nor the steady perseverance in a systematic plan of conduct."

Adams on Hamilton: "A lecher and a schemer. The bastard son of a Scotch peddler." And they were both Federalists.

In the election, the Democratic-Republicans run Jefferson and Aaron Burr as a ticket. Federalists run Adams and Charles Pinckney as a ticket.

Problem - no provision for "tickets" under the Constitution

Electors voted for two candidates without differentiation

Largest number of votes becomes President, number two is VP

Result - Jefferson and Burr tie.

The election is thrown into the House of Representatives to decide. Each state gets one vote. Now it gets very interesting. Everyone had understood going in that Jefferson was running for President and Burr for Vice President, but some Democratic-Republicans preferred Burr to Jefferson. It appears that there might be enough votes so that Burr can get elected with Federalist help if he is willing to give some indication he will support some of their policies.

Hamilton very displeased. He hated Jefferson. But he really, really hated Burr. Hamilton and Burr had had bruising political battles in New York, so Hamilton works to cut Burr off:

"I admit that Jefferson's politics are tinctured with fanaticism; that he is too much in earnest in his democracy; that he has been a mischievous enemy to the measures of our past administration; that he is crafty and persevering in his objects; that he is not scrupulous about the means of success nor very mindful of truth; and he is a contemptible hypocrite."

"As to Burr, he is a man of extreme and irregular ambition; that he is selfish to a degree which excludes all social affections; and that he is decidedly profligate . . . . He is far more cunning than wise, far more dexterous than able. "If there is a man I ought to hate it is Jefferson. With Burr, I have always been personally well. But the public good must be paramount to every private consideration."

It takes 36 ballots in the House. In the end, several critical supporters of Burr agree to abstain from voting in exchange for policy guarantees from Jefferson, which Jefferson gives. So Jefferson is elected.

Elections ugly...aftermaths NOT

This sets a critical precedent - the peaceful turnover of power EVEN IF IT IS TO A POLITICAL AND PERSONAL ENEMY. Adams is not graceful and leaves before the inauguration, but the precedent is honored.

1824 Election

Electoral vote results - Who do you think wins?

           Andrew Jackson         99

           John Quincy Adams    84 (Winner)

 William Crawford       41

 Henry Clay                 37

This is the only election in which the top electoral vote getter is not elected.

Jackson also had more popular votes than anyone else, but six states, including NY, still have electors chosen by state. When Jackson gets a plurality rather than an absolute majority, under the Constitution the election results are then decided by the House of Representatives.

These four candidates were ultimately left standing:

Andrew Jackson - Recently resigned Senator and military hero, was a very popular figure in rural areas. He was quick to take offense, fought duels, hated centralized power and centralized money, hated the Bank of the US and sets policy for what will become the Democratic Party; e.g. tariffs for revenue purposes only; no federal money for internal improvements and minimal economic role for the federal government.

John Quincy Adams - The son of John Adams, Sec'y of State, with long experience in government and diplomacy; very smart, competent and has all the faults of his father.

William Crawford - Sec'y of Treasury, with strong Southern support (sectarian disputes over slavery had already become a big deal) and a stroke victim, so it is not clear what would have happened had he been elected

Henry Clay - Speaker of the House, advocating for the "American System," the basis of what would become the Whig Party (federal spending on internal improvements, tariff for protection of American products, centralized US Bank and larger economic role for federal government.)

Clay realizes he can't win, so he becomes king maker - He chooses John Adams. Jackson decries this as a "corrupt bargain." Support for this view surfaces when Adams names Clay Sec'y of State (traditional stepping stone to Presidency). There was speculation before the House vote that this would happen. The contrary view that this was not a "corrupt bargain" was because Adams' policy positions were much closer to Clay's than to those of Jackson or Crawford.

Again, the tradition of peaceful transfer is upheld. Even Jackson, a notorious hot-head, made no effort whatsoever to overturn the ultimate decision. Jackson followed the maxim "don't get mad, get even." He crushes Adams in 1828!

1876 Election

Rutherford B. Hayes v. Samuel J. Tilden

Hayes - Civil War general, three term Governor of Ohio, Harvard Law School graduate (only one until Obama - Mitt Romney trying to be the third.)

Tilden - Governor of New York, prosecutor of infamous Boss Tweed Tammany Hall political corruption ring.

The big issue in this election was Reconstruction. Republicans had been running the South since the end of the Civil War. Over the decade, more and more ex-Confederate states are readmitted. By 1876, all are back in the union. Military control of the South is weakening, so that black votes are less and less secure. As result, there are more disputes about who properly represents some of the Southern states in the Electoral College.

The Popular vote:

Approx. 8,400,000 total votes - some dispute between Republicans and Democrats regarding the total number of votes. Republicans say Tilden had 250,000 more. Democrats say he had 265,000 more.

The battle came down to Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina. Each one had disputed electors - one set of Democrats, one set of Republicans. After various post-election shenanigans, Tilden is one vote short with 19 votes in dispute.

How to resolve this issue?

The constitution says "The President of the Senate shall in the presence of Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall be counted."  The Constitution does not say who is to count the votes. That is the big issue to resolve. The President of the Senate, meaning the sitting Republican Vice-President or the sitting President pro tem (also Republican); OR the entire Congress. - Senate is controlled by Republicans, House is controlled by Democrats. Eventually, the Electoral Commission Law is passed. After much effort to gain a reasonable solution is blocked by both parties, the final decision is left to essentially one member of the Supreme Court (do hanging chads come to mind here?)

In any event, Supreme Court Justice Davis voted with the Republicans. Every single dispute is resolved for the Republicans by an 8-7 straight party -line vote. More claims followed of a "corrupt bargain," which was to end Reconstruction in return for allowing Hayes to be elected (The Compromise of 1877). In fact, the last US troops were removed from the South (South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana). Was this really a quid pro quo or merely reassurance of what had already been stated as intended Republican policy? We will probably never know for sure, but Grant ordered troops out of Florida and Hayes removed them from the other two states. Result - Reconstruction ends, "carpetbagger" Republicans leave with the army, black political gains are completely reversed and Jim Crow takes over.

But again, it is a peaceful transition in the face of very strong agitation. There were Democrats seriously calling for taking up arms. Tilden calls for calm and accepts the results. His campaign manager published a statement saying: "I prefer four years of Hayes' administration to four years of civil war."

2000 Election

This election shows how deeply ingrained the tradition of the peaceful turning over of power is instilled in this country. Both sides fight as hard as they know how, self-limiting to lawyers, money and PR people. It never occurs to anyone that use of force or a military takeover is a legitimate path to follow.

Conclusion

It is simply taken for granted in the U.S. that power passes from one party to another peacefully, even cooperatively. Deposed leaders go home, not to firing squads. Think how unusual this is in the history of the world. This is a hard-won tradition that is hard-wired into our political expectations. For all the rhetoric, the winner will take office, the loser will go home and live out his or her life, often doing great humanitarian work after they "retire" from the most powerful leadership position in the world.

CALENDAR

Friday 10/26 - Jim Kendall exposes himself

Friday 11/2 - Dr. Tapan Monroe, Economist

Friday 11/9 - Rotary International Foundation

Tuesday 11/13 - Board Meeting, Orinda

Friday 11/23 - Dark, Thanksgiving weekend

Friday 11/30 - Leander Hauri exposes himself

Friday 12/7 - Congressman George Miller

Friday 12/14 Dr. Paul Staudohar, Baseball, unions, the East Bay

HOME Team schedule...Saturdays 8am to noon 

2012 - October 27

2013 - January 26, March 23, May 25, July 27