To the Editor:
“As American as Apple Pie? The Rural Vote’s Disproportionate Slice of Power,” by Emily Badger (The Upshot, Nov. 21), made a good case for considering American democracy not only as venerably old, but also as an antique, in desperate need of updates and repair.
I don’t mind so much that the small states have disproportional political and voting power, thanks to the two senators for states large and small. What I do resent is that the Electoral College, except for Maine and Nebraska, is a state-by-state winner-take-all, rather than being divided up proportionally. Proportionality would at least be the approximation of a direct presidential election. It requires no constitutional amendment.
There would be no more swing states, and no more “wasted votes”; there would no longer be blue and red states, only shades-of-purple states. We are not as divided as it seems from looking at the winner-take-all red and blue electoral map.
I am disgusted with the American election process. Living in a non-swing state, I vote only to drive up the popular vote for my candidate, knowing full well that I will have zero effect on who wins or loses.
One way or the other, this democracy has to be fixed and given the chance to stitch this country together again. Otherwise, democracy may derail.
FRITZ MUELLER
New York
Note from KBJ: I hate to be the one to break it to Fritz Mueller, but his vote has "zero effect on who wins or loses," even in a swing state. If you're voting because you think your vote matters, you're delusional. As for altering or abolishing the electoral college (Mueller's proposal would have the effect of abolishing it), I say no. The framers of our Constitution were far more sagacious than Mueller and other tinkerers. Query: Would Mueller have written this letter had Democrats won the presidential election in 2000 and 2016?
