The Electoral College doesn’t work. Setting aside its epic failure in the Great Litigators’ Election of 2000,[1] the College’s persistent problems are subtler and more invidious. It taints the American electoral process by effectively removing states and thereby voters from “play.” It drives down voter turnout. And without action, the problem is unsolvable. While Barack Obama may yet remake the electoral map, he’ll only refocus attention on a different group of swing states. As long as the Electoral College continues to work the way it does, no candidate can break the “as go three states, thus goes the nation” paradigm.
Oddly enough, that the College is a problem is entirely uncontroversial. And yet, when someone in a position to change it is asked to take up the cause, the most frequent reaction is to throw up one’s hands in despair. After all, the College is a Constitutional issue, right? What can one Senator, one Governor, one Congressperson do? Obviously the only answer is, give up.
Wrong. This easy way out, most recently taken by Governor Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island, who apparently thinks he’s legally required to take the coward’s route, misreads the law, misapprehends constitutional history, and derelicts the states’ duties to manage the College. Managing the Electoral College is not a federal duty. Our federal Constitution merely states that the election of the president will be governed by “a Number of Electors.” In a pass-through to state law common throughout the Constitution, selection of those electors is committed to the sound discretion of the states.[2] No federal authority holds a gun to the heads of state legislatures and demands that each state give all of its electors to the winner of the state’s popular vote. If the several states have chosen that path, it’s by tradition and laziness. Nothing else.
Which means that it’s up to the states, not the federal government, to fix the Electoral College. And there is a way. We have the technology, and it’s almost elegant in its simplicity. Just have each state, on its own, give its electoral votes to the winner of the national, rather than statewide, popular vote (more detail here). Once states amounting to 270 electoral votes adopt the measure, the job is done. No constitutional convention, not even any federal law. Just state-by-state lobbying.
When governors like Carcieri refuse to enact the NPV solution, and demand that NPV activists turn to federal lobbying, they’re not just taking the coward’s way out of an important political decision. They’re completely misunderstanding the problem. It’s like telling someone with a plane ticket from Manhattan to London to get off the plane and walk. It’s why we need a mandatory constitutional law class for highschoolers. If the people can’t understand the people’s document, where does that leave democracy?
Footnotes below the line.
Maybe I just like hearing myself talk, but I greatly enjoyed being on Indie Talk’s Blog Bunker. Thanks to Joe Salzone and Alexandra DiTrolio for a great experience, and special thanks to Henry Dubb of The Proletariat, who’s provided me with the audio file, below.
I wasn’t feeling well going in – I might be getting sick! – but adrenaline carried the day. We covered the recent news that Obama has, in all polls, overtaken McCain, and wondered aloud where, exactly, Bush went wrong. There was also a random momentary foray into discussing the “9/11 Truthers,” one of the more bizarre conspiracy theorist groups out there, and I got to cite Futurama. All around, a win. Apparently I even came off as a moderate, which is also something to strive for – advocacy with reason and temperance.
Download: :blogbunker.mp3
My only regret is that we didn’t get to talk about Tim’s adventures in Iraq, but there’s talk of going on the show again when Tim’s back in the USA. Here’s hopin’. Thanks again, Joe and Alex!
I’ve just gotten a list of the topics for our radio debut tonight. They are -
While I think I’m pretty knowledgeable on all of those topics – and I’ve covered them before – if anyone has comments or links to stories on these issues, I’d sure appreciate it. And thanks for all the good luck wishes! I’ll return to more substantive topics tomorrow, I promise.
Apparently, deliberately trying to start a war is no longer news. In a story that’s getting surprisingly little coverage, Seymour Hersh reports in the New Yorker and on NPR that United States covert operatives are soon to be sent into Iran to foment dissent among revolutionaries, assassinate key targets, and generally destabilize the region, with an eye towards putting enough pressure on Iran’s government that it might “slip up,” and take the first step towards war. All of this, of course, is at the order of the executive branch, and done with the grumbling reluctance of the Congress: seems like a familiar saga to me. Hersh tells the story of an administration desperate to do something – anything – about Iran before its clock runs out, and a Democratic Congress too concerned with how the issue could be spun against them to halt provocative moves that are at least likely to, and possibly designed to, start a war with Iran.
Great nations have always had their rituals for beginning a war justly – under Roman fetial law (ius fetiale), the fetial order of priests was required to conduct certain rituals to give the enemy notice of a transgression agains the Roman state, and to invoke the support of the Gods – and our ritual has, apparently, become provoking our enemy into making the first move. If there’s anything more dangerous than the Bush Administration with a mandate and popular support, it might just be the Bush Administration with nothing left to lose.
Today, I’ll be interviewed on “The Blog Bunker,” on Sirius’ Indie Talk 110. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been able to listen to a few earlier broadcasts in preparation, where they interviewed the writers of The Malcontent and the Proletariat, and I’m amazed to hear how seriously they talk about political bloggers – “the new journalists.” Whoa. I have to say that it hasn’t occurred to me – even for a minute – that I’m anywhere near that important (I’m probably not…).
Hopefully, I’ll be able to get an MP3 of the show to put up here, or at least a link, for the all-but-one of you who lack Sirius radio. Otherwise, hint hint, three day free trial.
From what I’m hearing, the host, Joe Salzone, seems like someone I’ll get along with. While we’re not of one mind politically, he’s an independent libertarian, and I expect us to have a lot of common ground.
Anyways, all of this puts me in a reflective mood. Over the past two months and a half months, I’ve tried to hit a few themes on this site, themes that I hope will come up on the air. Recap:
Hmm. Those might be the big points. Wish me luck. I’m sad that Tim’s not here to do the show too, but apparently we’ll get to do it again, once he’s back from Iraq (just heard from him again – he’s okay!).
And, again on a reflective note, a heartfelt thanks to everyone who reads and enjoys this site.
