What my Favorite Founding Father would say about our Government today…
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed." –A. Lincoln
“I GOT IT!”— and like a spry sprite springing after a foul ball at Oriole Park, in my dream, I caught the bread roll (that fell from the waiter’s tongs and rolled off the table) just before it hit the floor – Woohoo! BUT… I knocked the table so hard that my merlot spilled all over the place.... Oops. Fortunately, everything’s cleaned up now, and we’re ready to continue the imaginary conversation I started with
Declaration signer, Constitution co-author, and Supreme Court Justice James Wilson.
The Electoral College
James Wilson: Mr. Smith, I was wondering if you might do me a favor… and then perhaps explain something to me. First, the favor: it’s about the Electoral College.
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"I'm James Wilson, and
I approve this Message" |
You see, the most divisive subject we wrestled with in 1787 wasn’t Slavery... No, no: it was how to elect the darned President! I wanted the
People to choose him, but everyone else wanted Congress to do it. They spent all summer trying to figure out a way to do that, but eventually recognized that none of their quasi-parliamentary systems provided adequate separation of powers…. So: they begrudgingly acceded to my
compromise suggestion of an Electoral College, where each state gets at least three electors, and the larger ones get more, in relation to their population.
Just like that bread roll, my
original proposal never got “on the table”…. They shot it down for two reasons:
FIRST: The requirement for voters to own land was disappearing, and my friends worried that America’s new voters would be, by and large, too poorly informed and disconnected to be entrusted with such a critical duty…. I must admit: communications were awfully slow back then…illiteracy
was awfully high.
SECONDLY: Georgia and South Carolina threatened to quit the Union if we didn’t boost slave state representation by adding three people to their base populations for every five of their slaves. We ultimately agreed – called it the “3/5ths Compromise.” And giving them extra Congressmen was easy enough; but since their slaves couldn’t vote, the only way to give them “extra suffrage” in Presidential elections was to go with an Electoral College system, and then award them more electors….
BUT NOW, IT’S 2013, and those two conditions are gone! Plus: the Constitution begins
“We the People,” not “We the States”….
We elect the People’s President – not the States’ “Governor-in-Chief”…. So Larry, please: Catch my fallen dream … just like you caught that bread roll. Nix the Electoral College!
Me: Absolutely agree, Justice Wilson – will do my best! The only reason it’s still around is the “stickiness” of Tradition... And you know what: I’m a Maryland voter who’s never missed a single presidential election, but at the same time, NEVER cast a vote for President that mattered one bit. During presidential elections, more than 222 million Americans –
72% of us – are simply
irrelevant, and therefore all but ignored by the candidates…. Instead, we elect our presidents based upon the outcomes of elections in just 11 “battleground” states (see map below)…. And that’s ridiculous!
In a January 2013 Gallup poll, 63% of the respondents said they were
FOR abolishing the Electoral College, with 29% Against, and 8% Undecided…. That’s
more than a 2:1 margin, James!! Today, we have
freakishly high social connectivity because of the Internet…and everyone’s learned to read – mostly so they can text their friends on their Smartphones (see chart below). Plus, slavery ended 150 years ago! The Electoral College’s time is
way past – America needs a
“new birth” of Democracy!
Wilson: Every voter counts; and every vote should count equally!
Role of the Federal Government
Me: Yeah, man – right on … FIST BUMP!! [And we fist-bumped…but our timing was, well, a
bit awkward…] OK ... what about Federal involvement in safety nets, James…and healthcare, and infrastructure…and all of our executive departments having multi-billion dollar budgets? How do we know when we’ve gone too far?
Wilson: Well Larry, we set the standard for you in the Constitution – Article 1, Section 8 – when we authorized Congress to raise moneys to “establish post offices and post roads.” Delegates suggested other worthwhile things too, such as a national university; but in 1787, the postal service was the only public good we could think of that everyone needed – everywhere – and that no private market could adequately provide. Today, with email and FedEx … and UPS, we wouldn’t include it.... But it’s the
standard we set that’s the important thing: “Everyone, everywhere, and an insufficient private market.”
Now, you may ask: Does a social safety net benefit everyone, everywhere? Well, sure it does…as long as it’s truly a
net and not some subsidy…. And the 1930’s showed that America’s private charity “market” just wasn’t sufficient.... Then something amazing happened: 50 years later, we all but
eliminated poverty for America’s elderly! It was one of our society’s
all-time greatest achievements!
Gerrymandering & Term Limits
Me: “Everyone, Everywhere, and an Insufficient Private Market”… OK, I’m good with that. Now, here’s my dessert question: What was your fellow founder, Elbridge Gerry, thinking of when he decided to redraw his perfectly normal looking congressional district into a “salamander” in order to retain the voters who liked him and draw out the ones who didn’t? I mean, didn’t he consider the long-term consequences of doing that??
Wilson: Oh, he probably did…but he must have thought about himself more – Elbridge always was an old peptic stick-in-the mud…. But regardless – now
you have to reverse his course by turning to independent, impartial commissions to re-draw your districts every ten years, just like they do in Arizona!
And by the way, Maryland’s Third District (pictured below) is a personal insult to my old friend James Madison! I can’t tell you how many times Jimmy reminded us about the importance of large democracies “extending” their legislators’ “spheres” so they would be lobbied from all sides on an issue. But nowadays, your representatives’ votes are mostly pre-ordained…. They’re beholden to the narrow factions they carved out for themselves. They’ve no incentive to hammer out compromise solutions…
so almost nothing constructive ever gets done!
And you know what else: if you’ll make your districts competitive again, your Term Limits issue will “magically”
disappear … because normal turnover will magically
reappear.
There’s
so much Good yet to be done!
Wake-up Call
Me: Well, I’m really diggin’ what you’re shovelin’, Justice Wilson!! And I think I’m out of questions.… But thank you so much – this dinner was great! Was there something that you wanted
me to explain to
you?
Wilson: YES, indeed there was: Tell me about this Johnny Unitas movie I’m hearing mention of lately…
Me: Oh yeah – it’s really cool! Johnny’s son, Joe, has brought together a great team for it. When he was a kid, Joe frequently heard people ask his dad if they could make a movie about him, and John would always say, “Who would want to go see that movie?”— when of course, lots of people would! So this January, they’re going to officially announce it at the first open air NFL championship game played above the Mason-Dixon Line since 1966! Production begins next summer … and
Joe Flacco is going to play Johnny in the football scenes!
Wilson: Joe Flacco…wow!!
[And then I woke up … sub-consciously jolted by just how weird this dream was beginning to get….]
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