If you’re a radio geek, like I am, John Landecker, at the age of 73, is taking on a full-time slot as a talk-radio host on Chicago’s WGN, starting at the end of September. Because of that, I looked up his Wikipedia page and was surprised to learn “Records” was his mother’s maiden name, which is why it really is his middle name.
I’m considering building a new garage at my house to replace the one that’s falling down. If I do that, just that garage will cost four or five times as much as my parents paid for their house.
Now that we’re in the heart of the presidential campaign (yawn) I keep hearing once more that President Trump was the loser in the last election, but he was awarded the office anyway. To be clear where I stand, I didn’t vote for the Democrat or the Republican in 2016. I couldn’t hold my nose and vote for the least bad candidate because I considered them both equally repulsive. Still, I hate it when people say the loser won the election. It’s like saying the Washington Nationals won the Stanley Cup last year, but another team was awarded it. The Nationals didn’t win the Stanley Cup because the Nationals play baseball. Well, last year they did; this year that’s not so clear), The Stanley Cup, in case you don’t know, is awarded to the National Hockey League champion.
The winner won the presidential election in 2016 because popular vote wasn’t the game being played. Hillary and her consultants knew what the game was. They also knew it was possible to win the popular vote and lose the election. It had happened before. They blew it. They should have concentrated more on swing states.
Should we do away with the electoral college? Maybe. The founding fathers had a reason for creating it though. They wanted low-population, agricultural states to retain some influence and power within the federal government. If we did eliminate it, there would be consequences. And if one-person one-vote should be sacred, we should also do away with the senate (or apportion seats by population) and allow congressional districts to cross state lines. When you divide the US population by 435, the number of members of the House of Representatives, three states, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming, don’t have enough population to justify one whole congressional district. If we keep the Senate, but apportion it by population, thirty-two states don’t have enough population to justify one senator and four states deserve more than the two each state has now. California should have six! One-person-one-vote in the NY State Senate is why New York the city now controls all aspects of state government in New York the state. The city has more than half of the state’s population.
Can we do away with the electoral college? No. Reform is happening though. Some states have abandoned a winner-take-all approach to awarding delegates to candidates.
Why can’t we do away with the electoral college? It would require a constitutional amendment. Why won’t that happen? Because 51% of the US population lives in nine states. You probably know a constitutional amendment must be approved by 2/3 of the house and senate followed by ratification in 2/3 of the states, or by a constitutional convention called by 2/3 of the states. A convention has never happened because sane people are legitimately afraid that such a convention would throw the baby out with the bath water. The nine most populous states might vote to do away with the electoral college, but there is no way in hell 25 of the other 41 would go along with it. Why would North or South Dakota want that?
I’m usually the wordsmith in this family, but my wife hit on a great expression the other day. Our lawn has been taken over this year by crabgrass. But my wife said it isn’t crabgrass, it’s king-crabgrass.
I had a wedding anniversary, but it isn’t also my wife’s anniversary. How is that possible? Recently, I was married to my wife for two-thirds of my life. She’s younger than I am, so she was married to me for two-thirds of her life about three years ago. Even though it was my anniversary, I bought her flowers, because I could not have done it without her.
