About that electoral college thingy

We are starting to hear the caterwauling to remove this ‘arcane’ system of voting we have.  That would be a horrible mistake, and here’s why:

The USA is NOT a democracy!!!!  It is a federal republic comprised of 50 sovereign states.  Each state is allotted electoral votes based upon it’s population, so everyone’s actual vote is relatively the same for everyone.  Each state’s citizens don’t elect a President directly, we elect a slate of electors who then elect a President.  This concept is very important to understand because this is what forces a candidate to compete in each of the states. 

If we didn’t have this system, all a candidate would have to do is got to LA, Houston, NYC and Chicago to garner enough votes to win.  By doing so, these candidates would tailor laws specifically to attract more voters, thus leaving out the rest of the nation to fend for itself.  DC would not care less what happens in Florida, Vermont, Oklahoma, Nebraska etc. because they don’t need their votes.

This electoral thingy is what forces candidates to compete everywhere in America, and thus create policies for all of America.  Take a good look at the map.  There are entire states lit up in Red that would be totally ignored if there wasn't an electoral college.  Then take a look at New York.  The ONLY reason it went to Clinton was because of NYC.  There simply isn't much blue in rural areas of the country which have totally different needs then urban areas.  These are the people who produce the food, goods and services consumed by urbanites.  Shouldn't their voice be heard too?  If we were to abandon the electoral college, nothing but urban issues would be dealt with.

Think of it this way: in the world series, it’s a best of 7 tournament.  The Dodgers win 10-0 in the 1st game, but the Yankees win the next 4 games by 1-0.  Although the Dodgers outscored the Yankees 10-4, the Yankees won the series.  You need to win the game, and the games won is what counts, not the score.  In Politics, its a best of 50 states (and DC), with each state being weighted according to population.  When you win a state, you get it's points.  The total popular vote has absolutely no meaning whatsoever, just as the total runs scored doesn't matter to determine the outcome.

One more point to make is that the electoral system ensures we have a peaceful transfer of power.  IT has worked very well for America, albeit with some bumps in the road.  No other system has come close to this with such a large, diverse population as we have in the USA.