{"id":1028,"date":"2016-12-07T10:52:49","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T14:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2016-12-07T10:52:49","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T14:52:49","slug":"the-final-test-of-the-electoral-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2016\/12\/the-final-test-of-the-electoral-college\/","title":{"rendered":"The Final Test of the Electoral College"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union<\/i><\/b>, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2014That Guy<\/a> in that Musical Everyone is Nuts Over<\/p>\n

It seems like we finally have an excellent test as to whether or not the Electoral College is worth the inequality it introduces to an already highly unequal system[1]:\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

On the one hand, we have a popularly elected candidate with an enormous margin of victory (roughly\u00a02.5 million votes?) who is highly qualified, thoroughly vetted, and has spent so many decades as a public servant that she is a very thoroughly known quantity.\u00a0 On the other we have a historically unpopular candidate who has continued to behave in alarmingly erratic fashion since his election\u2014for example, threatening to dismantle the First Amendment and strip individuals of their natural-born citizenship, as well as questioning the legitimacy of the election he won\u2014who keeps himself cloaked in secrecy, is drowning in conflicts of interest, and eked out electoral victory\u00a0on a technicality almost certainly because of the concerted effort of a foreign power antagonistic to US interests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally<\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n