Bluegrass Beacon -- Electoral College: Games won, not runs scored
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Buttercups and snowflakes on college campuses came out to weep, gnash teeth purpled by sour grapes, shove others around and throw bottles because the presidential election didn’t go their way.
Five were arrested at a protest held on Western Kentucky University’s campus in Bowling Green.
But something different happened at Cornell University, where 30 constitutional toddlers showed up for a “Cry In.”
Other universities offered disconsolate students similar opportunities.
The pouters may be on to something better than protests with these “Cry Ins,” which coddle participants by using touchy-feely techniques to help heal their sore inner selves.
The Cornellians were furnished with poster boards, markers, chalk and even hot chocolate to express their grief and soothe their post-election trauma.
Only the marshmallows, campfire and hippie guitarist strumming “Kum ba yah” were missing.
This whole “Cry In” concept could be used as a much more meaningful act of catharsis.
Why not, for instance, hold a “Cry In” to mourn the consequences of building walls between us and the constitutional concepts that have served our nation nobly for more than two centuries?
It’s possible that some attenders of a good crying session about the lack of respect for the 12th Amendment, which established the procedure for voting for a president, might truly find some inner healing by discovering how ingenious this nation’s founders were when they established the Electoral College.
“This land is your land, this land is my land” could replace “Kum ba yah” as attenders stare dreamily into the campfire while reminding themselves that America consists of millions of citizens “from California to the New York Islands, from the Redwood Forest to the gulf stream waters,” Kentucky included.
The founders weren’t naïve in formulating our system whereby voters technically send electors to Washington to represent their states’ choice when casting votes for president every four years.
They ensured that while the larger states had greater numbers of electoral votes reflecting their larger populations – and thus greater influence – they alone did not have the final say.
Other states also are meaningfully engaged in hiring the nation’s commanders-in-chief.
Prepare yourself, however, for the soft weeping to become voluminous bawling at the realization that Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California introduced a bill to get rid of the Electoral College, calling it an “outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society.”
However, suppose that in next year’s best-of-seven World Series, the Indians won three games by lopsided margins of 10-2, 12-5 and 8-1 while the Cubs won four contest by razor-thin scores of 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3.
LeBron James would get laughed out of Wrigley Field if he demanded his Indians get the World Series trophy because they scored more runs in the series even though the Cubs actually won more games.
It would be even more foolish for James to claim that such an approach doesn’t reflect “the best aspect of this sport” when that’s exactly what it does.
It’s just as reckless for Boxer and her ideological allies to claim Hillary Clinton should be president because she got more individual votes even though Trump won more states.
Considering too many schools do a notoriously poor job of teaching students about the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, individual branches of government and our nation’s past wars – especially the Revolutionary War – it should come as no shock that many of these same, poorly educated citizens could also be convinced to change long-successful rules awarding the trophy to the team that scores the most runs rather than the one that wins the most games.
It’s all enough to make citizens who truly understand our system’s greatness tear up a bit themselves.
Jim Waters is president of the Bluegrass Institute; Kentucky’s free-market think tank. Reach him at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com. Read previously published columns at www.bipps.org.