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Wisdom of the Electoral College When people wonder why the Electoral College exists, there is no better demonstration than the image below. In the top image, you have the areas of the country that voted for Donald Trump in the majority. In the bottom image, Hillary Clinton. Green is the low end starting at 51% and white is 100%. Most of the brown ranges from about 70% to 85%. The site says: "Maps were created using IDW (Inverse distance weighted) technique in ArcGIS." You can see the original here: TrumpLand and Clinton Archipelago Numberwise, the Democrats keep saying over and over that Clinton won the popular vote by about two-and-a-half million votes. Rush Limbaugh said if you remove New York and California, Trump wins the popular vote by about three million votes. See here: They're Still Gobsmacked! Washington Never Imagined Trump Could Really Win. But it's even worse. Look what a caller (Steve in Baldwinsville, New York) said to to Rush (from the transcript): Here's the link to David Leip's site if anyone wants to check the numbers (I didn't): Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Basically, if we had not had the Electoral College, Trump and Clinton would have spent most of their time campaigning in New York, especially New York City, and California, especially LA County, and a place or two like Chicago. (In fact, that's basically what she did this election while Trump busted his ass running all over.) Those few areas would have dictated who the rest of the country had to accept as president. But look how the rest of the country voted in the TrumpLand and Clinton Archipelago maps above. Now let's ask the obvious question. Where do most of the poor immigrants migrate and where do most of the government handouts go? Directly into these small high-population-density areas, that's where. In other words, if we had used the popular vote system, the US President would have been elected by the people who do not sustain the US. So what to think about those who advocate throwing out the Electoral College? Talk about the looters and moochers wanting to rule over the producers! This could almost be out of Atlas Shrugged. I'm not sure the Founding Fathers anticipated such a dramatic demonstration of their wisdom, but ever there was one, this election definitely was it. Michael

No particular topic to start this off. I want to open a space where doubt is okay -- to have disquieting anticipation, to have issues and questions and even fierce criticism. OK to roll. I will also act as a moderator. The rules that are in place are the same general OL rules, but I intend to be a tight-ass. Please do not overdo 'personalizing' discussion. Do not attack the character of discussants or otherwise be a conversational oaf. There is only one level of appeal. So ... anybody got a nice safe space topic? I have thought about it for a while now, and all I can come up with is a vague theme ... UNITY UNIFY