 | |
| Author | Jeff Greenfield |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Putnam |
Publication date | September 12, 1995 |
| ISBN | 0-399-13812-9 |
The People's Choice:A Cautionary Tale is a 1995 novel written by American journalist Jeff Greenfield. In the novel, United States'President-elect MacArthur Foyle dies after the general election, but before the Electoral College has a chance to vote him into office, and the media and the election process are swung into chaos.
On Election Day in 1996, The Republican presidential ticket of Foyle-Block wins enough states to receive 305 electoral votes, compared to 233 electoral votes for the Democratic ticket of Mueller-Vincent. Since 270 electoral votes are needed to win the Presidency, the issue of who should be the next President is thought resolved.
However, President-elect Foyle dies only days after the election in a freak accident. The Republican party then promotes his running mate, Governor Theodore Block, to the top of the ticket. Governor Block quickly proves that he is a mental lightweight, his nickname being Teddy Blockhead, leading some to question his fitness for the presidency.
One of those questioning Block's fitness to be president is Michigan elector Dorothy Ledger, one of those forgotten people lost in a party's political machine who seems unimportant—until the fate of an election hinges on her actions. Ledger publicly questions whether she is required to vote for Block, and in so doing sets off a political firestorm and a minor rebellion among some Republican electors. A series of missteps by Block further exacerbates the issue.
Meanwhile, African-American preacher W. Dixon Mason and his supporters move toward endorsing their own favorite candidate, while Washington, D.C., "political powerbroker" Jack Petitcon, and his allies also attempt to control the process. [1] Avi DuPour is a popular liberal-bashing radio host who provides commentary on the proceedings. [2] [3]
The novel's plot exposes how much of a problem a potential rogue elephant (or donkey), also known as a maverick or faithless elector, [4] in the Electoral College could become. The Electoral College voters are composed largely of people no one has ever heard, chosen by the political parties from their membership lists (or, as in the novel, some retired officials well past their prime), and they vote to elect a president and vice president, bound for the most part, by their solemn word to vote for the candidate they are pledged to support.[ citation needed ]
The situation Greenfield sets up demonstrates how, under the right conditions, electors and their votes can be manipulated by idealism, opportunism, and cynicism without reference to the voters who elected them, possibly even electing as President in December a person who was not even on the ballot in November.[ citation needed ]
The book highlights the little known United States Constitution directives on how a United States President is elected. People within each state vote for electors who assemble in December to cast the binding vote to select the next president. There is very little law forcing electors to vote for the person that their state selected. [5] [ original research? ] James Kirkpatrick praised the novel for highlighting this "metaphysical" bomb lurking in the Constitution. [4]
Many of the characters are thought to have had real life counterparts at the time the novel was published. [2]
Publishers Weekly stated, "Characterization sometimes takes a back seat to plot machinations here but, for the most part, what The Player did for Hollywood, The People's Choice, in its unabashed flailing of the American system, does for presidential politics. [1]
Entertainment Weekly gave the novel a B-praised the premise of the book, however, stated the book failed to make anyone of the more than 90 characters in the book the emotional center of the novel. It also noted that as the United States has had incompetent presidents in the past, the scenario proposed in the novel is not the only way the United States can end up with an incompetent president.[ citation needed ]
Kirkus Reviews stated "Greenfield has had a field day with Washington's establishment, the media's feeding frenzies, idealogues whose ethics could most charitably be described as flexible, and other of federal government's less edifying pilot fish. A grand entertainment cum history lesson whose triumphant bad taste, genuine wit, and uncommon sense could and should make it a landslide winner in the marketplace." [6]
Film rights were obtained by Savoy Pictures. [1]
The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the procedure for electing the president and vice president. It replaced the procedure in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, under which the Electoral College originally functioned. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 9, 1803, and was ratified by the requisite three-fourths of state legislatures on June 15, 1804. The new rules took effect for the 1804 presidential election and have governed all subsequent presidential elections.
The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876.
The 1788–89 United States presidential election was the first quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788, to Wednesday, January 7, 1789, under the new Constitution ratified that same year. George Washington was unanimously elected for the first of his two terms as president and John Adams became the first vice president. This was the only U.S. presidential election that spanned two calendar years without a contingent election and the first national presidential election in American history.
The 1792 United States presidential election was the second quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, November 2, to Wednesday, December 5, 1792. Incumbent President George Washington was elected to a second term by a unanimous vote in the electoral college, while John Adams was re-elected as vice president. Washington was essentially unopposed, but Adams faced a competitive re-election against Governor George Clinton of New York.
The 1796 United States presidential election was the third quadrennial presidential election of the United States. It was held from Friday, November 4 to Wednesday, December 7, 1796. It was the first contested American presidential election, the first presidential election in which political parties played a dominant role, and the only presidential election in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing tickets. Incumbent vice president John Adams of the Federalist Party defeated former secretary of state Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party.
The 1800 United States presidential election was the fourth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, October 31 to Wednesday, December 3, 1800. In what is sometimes called the "Revolution of 1800", the Democratic-Republican Party candidate, Vice President Thomas Jefferson, defeated the Federalist Party candidate and incumbent, President John Adams. The election was a political realignment that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican leadership. This was the first presidential election in American history to be a rematch. It was also the first election in American history where an incumbent president did not win re-election.
The 1816 United States presidential election was the eighth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, November 1 to Wednesday, December 4, 1816. In the first election following the end of the War of 1812, Democratic-Republican candidate James Monroe defeated Federalist Rufus King. The election was the last in which the Federalist Party fielded a presidential candidate.
The 1820 United States presidential election was the ninth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Wednesday, November 1, to Wednesday, December 6, 1820. Taking place at the height of the Era of Good Feelings, the election saw incumbent Democratic-Republican President James Monroe win re-election without a major opponent. It was the third and the most recent United States presidential election in which a presidential candidate ran effectively unopposed. As of 2024, this is the most recent presidential election where an incumbent president was re-elected who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican, before the Democratic-Republican party split into separate parties. James Monroe's re-election marked the first time in U.S. history that a third consecutive president won a second election. This happened again with Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, following Bill Clinton in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2004, which all three consecutive presidents won their re-election campaigns. At no other point have multiple consecutive presidents won two elections. Monroe is also the first candidate to receive over 200 electoral votes for president.
The 1832 United States presidential election was the 12th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 2 to Wednesday, December 5, 1832. Incumbent president Andrew Jackson, candidate of the Democratic Party, defeated Henry Clay, candidate of the National Republican Party.
In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years during the presidential election for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president. The process is described in Article Two of the Constitution. The number of electoral votes exercised by each state is equal to that state's congressional delegation which is the number of Senators (two) plus the number of Representatives for that state. Each state appoints electors using legal procedures determined by its legislature. Federal office holders, including senators and representatives, cannot be electors. Additionally, the Twenty-third Amendment granted the federal District of Columbia three electors. A simple majority of electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves a majority, a contingent election is held by the House of Representatives, to elect the president, and by the Senate, to elect the vice president.
A running mate is a person running together with another person on a joint ticket during an election. The term is most often used in reference to the person in the subordinate position but can also properly be used when referring to both candidates, such as by saying Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, were running mates in relation to the presidential elections held in the United States in 2020 and Kenya in 2013 respectively.
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In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is generally a party representative who does not have faith in the election result within their region and instead votes for another person for one or both offices, or abstains from voting. As part of United States presidential elections, each state legislates the method by which its electors are to be selected. Many states require electors to have pledged to vote for the candidates of their party if appointed. The consequences of an elector voting in a way inconsistent with their pledge vary from state to state.
Federalist No. 68 is the 68th essay of The Federalist Papers, and was published on March 12, 1788. It was probably written by Alexander Hamilton under the pseudonym "Publius", the name under which all of the Federalist Papers were published. Since all of them were written under this pseudonym, who wrote what cannot be verified with certainty. Titled "The Mode of Electing the President", No. 68 describes a perspective on the process selecting the chief executive of the United States. In this essay, the author sought to convince the people of New York of the merits of the proposed constitution. Number 68 is the second in a series of 11 essays discussing the powers and limitations of the executive branch and the only one to describe the method of selecting the president.
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