Indulge the furrinah's amazement with the US political system, part 2,908,578,905:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

Why does the new Congress convene 17 days before the President's inauguration? Any rationale for that, or do they just set the dates on a whim?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. They are separate and co-equal branches of government

so they can set their own time for things. At one time, the President wasn't inaugurated until March! So, compared to that, the 17 day difference doesn't seem like much.

[ThomWV]

2. Why is Christmas only in December but Easter can fall whenever it fucking pleases?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Because early Christians were competing with Mithra worshippers

At one time, the cult of Mithra was as popular (if not moreso) that the Christian Church. Mithra was said to have been born on Dec.25--so early Christians decided this was also the date of Jesus's birth. It also coincided with Saturnelia, another pagan festival popular with Romans.

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal Equinox, done, I assume, to confuse everyone and also to make it so that it doesn't always fall during Passover.

[zanne]

6. You don't know anything.

Easter isn't held whenever we please. It's held in the spring so the bunny eggs won't freeze. You can't have Easter in February, for example. Sheesh.

[zbdent]

7. it ain't the eggs the Easter Bunny is worried about freezing ...

[ThomWV]

9. Yeah, well, OK then, but what about Thanksgiving?

Look at Thanksgiving, maybe last week, maybe this week, maybe the week after. Fuck! All I know is it falls on a thursday, but which one seems more dependent on what day hunting season begins than it does on which day our sweet lord and savior was born, the position of the stars in the sky, or the odds of a black man being President of the United States.

[zanne]

12. The founding fathers knew how important the cranberry harvest would be....

Especially the jellied. The people at Ocean Spray petitioned them for that purpose. (The ignorance of historical knowledge here is appalling).

[Solon]

3. Our system of government is a little bit nuts(and yes its on a whim)...

hence why it is rarely emulated in other democratic countries around the world, and they use a slightly saner parliamentary system instead.

[LiberalEsto]

4. Why do the Brits insist on wigs for judges

Even though they finally got rid of wigs for most judges last month, criminal court judges must still wear them. Weird.

[LeftishBrit]

13. fair point!

The unfortunately long-defunct satirical radio programme "Week Ending" once included a song which had the lines,

"Computers could bring crooks to book
As well as judges like me do,
But dressed in curly wigs they'd look
As idiotic as we do!"

[zbdent]

8. Certification of the election results?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

10. Ah, THAT's a good reason.

Thanks.

[old mark]

11. Mr. Dirtbag (May I call you dirt)

The custims began in the late 1700's when transoprtation was horses and roads were pretty much not developed beyond trails.
It took a lot of time for votes to be counted, people to be notified,
and for the elect to travel to Federal City.

Congress always tried to be as independent of the President as they could, and I suppose they wanted a few days for sobering up before they met the new guy.

mark

[LeftishBrit]

14. The two things that always puzzle me (probably just me being ignorant) are..

(1) Why can't the presidential primary be held everywhere on the same day, like the general election?

(2) Why are Republican states/ voters described as 'red', when that means left-wing everywhere else?


But I do wish we had a rule in Britain that prime ministers are automatically out on their rear end after 2 terms like your presidents - Thatcher and Blair wouldn't have become elected dictators to quite the same extent!

[TahitiNut]

15. Well, I'll offer what I understand ...

(1) (a)Every state has the authority to run its own elections. The ONLY election whose time is set by federal law is the biannual general election held on the "first Tuesday following the first Monday in November" in which federal offices of Senator, Representative, and Presidential Elector are set. For ALL other elected offices, virtually ALL specific to that state, the state has the authority and there is no 'standing' for the federal government to intervene in what's a solely state jurisdictional issue.
(b) That's the legal power. The motivation to have a strategically-scheduled primary election, is to gain political advantage and economic advantage. The economic advantage is easily seen in New Hampshire, where wannabe-Presidents spend lots of money (media, travel & entertainment, political staff, tourism, etc.) in the state. It's not a trivial amount, especially when it comes to a state the size of New Hampshire.
(c) Primary elections are paid for in large part by the state political party in which the primary election is being held. There's very little to require both parties to have their primaries on the same date. Since they pay for it, they have a say on when its held. Smaller parties usually don't have primaries, their candidates being selected at convention. Primary elections were once RARE, when political parties weren't bound by them and the cost was seen as both unnecessary and prohibitive. Remember, political parties are PRIVATE not-for-profit corporations in the U.S. ... at least 51 of them for each major party: separate state organizations and a federal organization, all separately incorporated.

(2) Up through the 2000 election, it was conventional to assign the color blue to the INCUMBENT party and the color red to the CHALLENGING party. Thus, when a Republican was in office 'blue' represented the GOP and red represented the Democrats. Since Clinton was in office, the Democrats got the blue and the GOP got the red. It is now, due to the fiasco and ungodly amounts of coverage, a de facto permanent assignment, I guess. Thus, it was an 'accident.'

[LeftishBrit]

16. Thanks! That clarifies a lot.