FROM OUR INBOX
The way to bust up the education-government complex is to use the free market. First, with K-12 school choice. Then, if we want to help good college prospects, give them modest scholarships based on merit and let them (and their parents) determine which schools offer value for money. Re: The Mystery of Government (October 2017 issue of American Consequences ) Your comment on majority rule doesn’t square with the Constitution or the facts on the ground. The membership of the Senate was intentionally not based on Majority Rule. The House which was designed to represent the majority has been perverted by gerrymandering. Since we have had two [popular vote] minority presidents within the past 20 years one would have to assume that the electoral college ain’t no place of higher learning, and you can attain the highest office in the land without bothering to win the most votes. With that said, I don’t know if government would work any better with majority rule. I do know that my countrymen like to feel they are being heard. So here is my prediction... If this goes on for another 30 or 40 years (maybe less, maybe more) there will be a significant increase in political violence. – Jeff Smith
P.J. O’Rourke comment: Jeff, as I’ve remarked before in these “Inbox” comments, “Hope you’re wrong. Fear you’re right.” Majority rule without majoritarian dictatorship is the central paradox of democracy. Our Founding Fathers did their best to protect some of America’s minorities (such as pioneer farmers) from being crushed by the majority. But their best wasn’t very good – as their lack of protection for blacks and Native Americans proves. However, the way things are now, the Electoral College is about all that protects us Middle Americans from rule by the flakey “Coastals.” Historical note: Since 1960, we have elected presidents who gained less than 50% of the popular vote six times. And no matter whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, this list of presidents probably includes at least one of almost everybody’s “worst ever.”
1960 1968 1992 1996 2000 2016
J.F.K. Nixon Clinton Clinton
49.72% 43.42% 43.01% 49.23% 47.87% 45.98%
George W.
Trump
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18 March 2018
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