Electoral College creates fairness, unity, stability

Our nation just went through a brutal presidential campaign. The loser got more popular votes than the winner.

The states which are more populated have more electoral votes than those less populated states. However, if the less populated states can combine all of their electoral votes along with several more populated states, that candidate can garner the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House.

Without the Electoral College, all a candidate would need to do is campaign in the more heavily populated states. Over time, the states with fewer electoral votes would throw up their hands and say “What’s the use?!”

In time, I believe our country would become fractured, split, or “Balkanized” and then we truly would become the Divided States of America. The same thing happened when Al Gore got more popular votes than Dick Cheney’s Do Boy, but George Bush became our 43 president.

If President-elect Donald Trump climbs to a higher level and creates a climate of cohesiveness and prosperity, all the better for all of us. If his policies push our country into a nose dive, then in four years those same smaller states with fewer electoral votes can unite once again and can say to him “You’re fired!”

Our brilliant Founding Fathers got it right. We’ve got to keep the Electoral College for the sake of fairness, unity, and stability.

This story was originally published December 1, 2016 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Electoral College creates fairness, unity, stability."