Baseball and politics

Our statewide newspaper has editorialized in favor of the Electoral College over the popular vote for presidential election by comparing its effect to a baseball World Series where one team wins one game by 20 runs, but loses four games by one run each, thus losing the overall contest.

A dangerous weakness of the

Electoral College system is, even so, its lack of proportionality to the popular vote. This may be a narrow difference, but it could be wider in the future, perhaps by a 10 million or more vote plurality for the losing candidate. Such a development could indeed be revolting, causing insurrection in states where the popular-vote winner had big margins. To pooh-pooh this possibility begs for a possible, if not probable, breakdown of civil order.

The editorial wonders why we would want our candidates to campaign only in great cities, as might be the case if the election were determined by popular vote. The great cities and their states are the large economic engines of the U.S. The recent election was won by a candidate making his best pitch to the Rust Belt states. That area, not the economically strong cities and states, had its thumb on the scale, so to speak, of the election. Letting a decaying economic sector determine the direction of our federal administration seems pretty goofy. It’s what the Electoral College has given us.

If we justify the Electoral College using the World Series analogy, then we should have a presidential contest yearly, as does baseball.

We might see then more accurately just how long voters would remain fooled by the junk hurled by Republican pitchers. GARY BRODNAX Fayetteville