Electoral rules matter

I get so tired of John Brummett calling Donald Trump our “second-place president.” I wonder if John understands the rules. Obviously his candidate does not since she blames everything under the sun for her loss. You both might want to read the 12th Amendment to refresh your memories.

Imagine if we played sports that way. Suppose, after a loss, the winning football team was declared the second-place team because the losing team had gained more yards or made more first downs. Only the points scored matters. Each team understands that going in. I know the president understood the rules for sure. As much as you might like, you can’t change the rules after the fact and declare a new winner. I can just imagine the media outcry if conservatives tried to pull that on a Democrat president. Rules are rules, as they say. If you want to change them, then do it within the framework of our Constitution. I know you claim to not like the rules. But I think what you really don’t like is the result. Why not accept them and move on instead of constantly rubbing our noses in your displeasure with the outcome … now over a year old?

Since we are the “United States” and not just the “state,” the framers of the Constitution understood the dangers of electing a president based on a simple majority vote. Do we really want our leader to be elected solely by New York, California, Illinois, and a few others? We might as well tell the rest of the states to not bother voting. Try reading some history to understand the logic for the electoral college and then see if you still want to call the president “second-place.”

I hope you can see the light and stop referring to the president this way. Hopefully you can then finally accept who the real second-place finisher is and stop the name-calling.

MARC WHITTLESEY Bella Vista