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"That the public mood is a poor compass for guiding the ship of state is an old lament. Here are two reasons why.
The first has to do with the laziness, spinelessness and vanity of political elites. Citing polls as proof you're on the right side of an argument often is a symptom of intellectual cowardice. If the crowd says two plus two equals seven, that's no reason to invoke the authority of the crowd. But pundits and politicians know that if they align themselves with the latest Gallup findings, they don't have to defend their position on the merits because "the people" always are right. Such is the seductiveness of populism. It means never being wrong. "The people of Nebraska are for free silver, and I am for free silver," proclaimed William Jennings Bryan. "I will look up the arguments later."
Which brings us to ideology. The days when politicians would actually defend small-r republicanism are gone. The answer to every problem in our democracy seems to be more democracy, as if any alternative spells more tyranny. Indeed, once more the "forces of progress" are trying to destroy the Electoral College in the name of democracy. Their beachhead is Maryland, which was the first to approve an interstate compact promising its electors to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote.
If these progressives have their way, we'll soon see candidates ignoring small states and rural areas entirely because democracy means going where the votes are. The old notion that this is a republic in which minority communities have a say will suffer perhaps the final, fatal blow.
But that's OK, because 70 percent of Americans say they're for getting rid of the Electoral College. And Lord knows, they must be right."
Goldberg, editor-at-large for National Review Online, is also a syndicated columnist. Send e-mail to JonahsColumn@aol.com
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So if I am following this, electing a president is not about how many people actually vote for him, because it isn't a popularity contest. Therefore small states and rural areas (that have no people in them, like N. Dakota and Wyoming) would be ignored in favor of "going where the votes are." I cannot imagine that by "small states" Jonah is lamenting the fate of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and New Hampshire. No, not at all. By "small states and rural areas" he means those large, empty expanses out West, that are inflicted with low populations. Incidentally what is the basis of awarding electoral votes based on geographic territories?
Make no mistake here, there are more progressives in this country than republicans. The recent Pew Center report shows that 50% of the country now identifies itself as Democrat versus 35% who identify as Republican. This is a shameful attempt to simultaneously insult American voters as stupid while jury-rigging an archaic institution to continue to "protect small-r republicanism" whatever in the hell that is! Just further evidence, along with chronic vote-tampering and electoral shenanigans, that republicans hate democracy. He even manages to cast democracy itself as a bad thing! Simply incredible. I have never seen such bald-faced anti-Americanism!
2 comments:
Although Jonah Goldberg worries that “we'll soon see candidates ignoring small states and rural areas” under a nationwide vote for President, the fact is that this is already the case under the current system. Under the winner-take-all rule (currently used by 48 of 50 states), all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who gets the most votes in the state. Presidential candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or worry about the concerns of voters of states that they cannot possibly win or lose. Instead, candidates concentrate their attention on a handful of “battleground” states. 88% of the money is focused onto just 9 closely divided battleground states: Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and New Hampshire. You will notice that this list does not include the vast majority of small states and rural states.
In fact, the small states are the most disadvantaged of all under the current system of electing the President. The reason is that they are almost always one-party states and political clout, under the current system, comes from being a closely divided battleground state. Of the 13 smallest states, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Alaska regularly vote Republican, and Rhode Island, Delaware, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, and DC regularly vote Democratic. These 12 states together contain 11 million people. Because of the two electoral-vote bonus that each state receives, the 12 non-competitive small states have 40 electoral votes. However, the two-vote bonus is an entirely illusory advantage to the small states. Ohio has 11 million people and has “only” 20 electoral votes. As we all know, the 11 million people in Ohio are the center of attention in presidential campaigns, while the 11 million people in the 12 non-competitive small states are utterly irrelevant. Nationwide election of the President would make each of the voters in the 12 smallest states as important as an Ohio voter.
Very well put, joreko. I think it is telling that this concern for the under-representation of "minorities" and "small states" conspicuously does not extend itself to providing for representation for the District of Columbia. 500,000 unrepresented largely minority voters and no cry of outrage from The New Republic!
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