I’m really a fan of the Electoral College! As we worked on the Constitution in the late 1780s, the States ever-so-reluctantly, and one drop-of-blood at a time, ceded power to the Feds. And the Feds, Reagan Revolution notwithstanding, have been accumulating power & rules ever since, under Republicans as well as Democrats. The nice thing about the Electoral College (in its winner-take-all modality) is that it forces the Candidates to focus on the States. Despite the fact that I did not support Mr. Bush, I am perfectly happy that my fellow citizens in Florida and now Ohio were the “kingmakers” in 2000 and 2004. I’m delighted that the candidates have to direct extraordinary effort to “battleground states,” even though that meant that we Californian-Vermonters (me) didn’t see much of them or even their ads (no loss there!).
In my “official” “professional life” I am a screamin’, shoutin’ supporter-champion of radical decentralization … so, too, in my personal-political life. At times the Feds are absolutely necessary—terrorism and Jim Crow laws, for instance. But most times I want to scream … Get Outta My Life.