I anticipate some caterwauling this election from the Democrats again about the Electoral College.  Here is part one of a to-be-ongoing series on reasons that we still need the Electoral College.

Reason The First: Because Otherwise We'd Have Another Civil War

If the voting was done on a direct popular basis, the rural areas of the United States would have no effective voice.  There would be no political point in them remaining in the Union, and they would secede again (and with considerably more justification this time); the cities wouldn't be able or willing to let them go.  To avoid just that kind of sectionalism, secession, and war, the Founders (angel choir) decided to compromise with a system that gives major populaton centers a large voice, but not an overwhelming one. (And you'll note that while the South went south anyway, under-representation in the Federal government was not the reason.  So the Founders weren't perfect, sue 'em.)

Let's use one of my colorful homespun analogies.  This one has liquor and prostitutes, so pay attention.  Say you have two men running a boat.  Both of them have skills that are absolutely necessary to operate the boat, and that neither of them can do it alone.  One of them weighs 315 pounds, and the other weighs 85 pounds.  A case could be made that the shipping company should pay the fat man 315/400ths of the salary budget, and the skinny man 85/400ths, because the fat man has to buy a lot more food, his clothes are more expensive, he needs more bourbon to get liquored up, etc.  But if you did that, the skinny man would quit and go find work with another shipping company, and the boat would sink.  The fat man can't leave; berths for 315-pound seamen are hard to find.  (They keep breaking hammocks.)  So if there's to be "injustice", measured by weight:dollar ratios, in the salary arrangement, it is going to end up being at the fat man's expense.

So the fat man of the cities gets boned in the ear, to an extent, but he IS getting paid, so he doesn't quit.  He just grumbles once in a while that he's spending an awful lot of his salary on crates of Snack Ramen while his skinny rural coworker nibbles the occasional sandwich and has a lot more for dockside whoring expenses.  It isn't FAIR, but it works.  The "fair" alternative wouldn't.

The likelihood of a civil war scenario may be low, but the costs of it are very high. 

Jump to Part Two

Robert @ 13:44 | | | . | E-Mail This Post