Brian Gongol
Junking the Electoral College would be flat-out stupid for small states
Iowa State Senators Staci Appel and Michael Connolly need a lesson in civics, and fast. Appel submitted a study bill which became Senate File 227 under Connolly's committee on state government, which would pledge Iowa's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. It would be nearly impossible to plumb the depths of just how stupid this idea really is for any of the nation's small-population states. The Electoral College affords states like Iowa (7 electoral votes), Wyoming (3), Vermont (3), Oregon (7), New Mexico (5), and West Virginia (5) at least a little bit of Constitutional protection from being overridden by the demands of voters in just a few large states. That was the whole point of the grand compromise that gave us a House and a Senate with different rules for filling each. The Electoral College affords at least some insurance that a President not only be popular with the country at large, but also with the interests of the many states that make up the country as a whole. Abandoning the Electoral College violates the very spirit of Federalism, and for small states to reject their protections under the Constitution is categorically stupid. Yet they're serious about taking action on this bill.
A glorious socialist future? Not quite.
Photos from behind the walls in North Korea. Truly amazing. The socialist "paradise" it's supposed to be
See the icebergs ahead
(Video) A promo for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which created the outstanding movie "IOUSA", makes a simple but extremely effective argument: We're hearing lots about the economic recession right now, but if we don't get our act together on Medicare and Social Security, we're going to have a crisis of ten times the magnitude of what we're dealing with today. If ever there were a time to pay attention to government spending, it's on the day when the President unveils a $3.6 trillion Federal budget.
Without an apprentice, the political columnist role at the Des Moines Register could be dead
DC may end up with a vote in the US House of Representatives
Podcast: Don't take photos of British police
Explosive gases kill 74 in China
