– Letter to the Editor –
– Letter to the Editor –
Letter to the Editor:
I read your ( Courier Sentinel) editorial of July 9, “Time to scrap the electoral college.” A direct election of the president by popular vote might be appealing, but as you state, it requires altering the constitution.
The electoral college allows the election of a president that is more representative of the entire nation. Just as Wisconsin is a diverse state, the nation is even more so.
Our founders were very much aware of the fate of democracies. They gave us a republic; if we can keep it. The problem does not lie in the constitution, but in the perverted way it has been applied.
Congress artificially fixed its number to 435. Our constitution states that each representative should represent at least 30,000 voters. Congress could easily increase its number to 1,000. They could just as easily cut their pay in half, too. And why not? They’d only need to do half the work.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen. If you are worried about “picked men” running the nation instead of the “unwashed masses,” then why not have more and more representative congress critters?
California has 40 million people. Why hasn’t California split into five states? The people living there now would then be represented by 10 senators, instead of two. Texas, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, could also split up into Wisconsin-sized states. Better representation, without altering the constitution.
Some of our founders spoke out against political parties. Indeed, most of our nation’s history has been burdened by a two-party monopoly on power. Once in a while, a third party will pick up a few percent to give the appearance of fair elections. In reality, two choices is no choice.
Most Americans refuse to buy into our corrupt system and don’t vote. Our campaign finance laws are an incumbent reelection protection racket. We don’t need electoral college reform. We need to get used to throwing politicians out of office. More political parties, more competition, more choices, better government.
The 17th Amendment, electing senators by popular vote, was a mistake. Its intentions were good, yet now we have senators too old to balance their own checkbook and dying in office. Mob rule has failed us. Better to have state legislators, “picked men,” putting senators in and tossing them out.
To conclude, the Black Lives Matter movement can give us all reason for encouragement. When things are wrong, people protest and riot. When the cost of doing “government as usual” exceeds the price of change – things change.
We are both in agreement that “government as usual” isn’t working. Don’t sell the founders so short, they knew what they were doing.
Kevin Litten, Cadott
