Dear editor,
Regarding the Cowboy State Daily political cartoon by A.F. Branco on 10/13/24, what is wrong with that picture?
The answer is that it ignores the history of the Electoral College. During the 1787 Constitutional Convention, one major contention was over who would elect the president; the people or Congress?
After months of debate, the delegates still didn’t agree. Hence, the idea to use state appointed independent electors was considered.
James Madison realized that a presidential election based solely on free white men would never be accepted by Southern states, where 40 to 60% of the population were enslaved.
They therefore settled on the “Three-fifths Compromise” where 3/5 of the black population was used to allocate electoral delegates and congressional representatives. The result was the Electoral College, which gave Southern states an advantage that has persisted to the present day.
In 1796, Electoral College votes were apportioned. Thomas Jefferson lost to John Adams. In 1800, Jefferson implored Virginia governor James Monroe to switch to a “winner take all” system, which favored Jefferson because 60% of Virginians were slaves who could not vote. Monroe agreed and Jefferson won the presidency.
Today, all but two states now use the winner take all system. The Constitution specifies that an individual district can be no smaller than 30,000 people, but there is no upper limit.
The 1920 census showed that urban people in the North outnumbered those in rural areas.
In 1929, the House capped its membership at 435 specifically to reduce the “power” of city dwellers with “dangerous” immigrants. The average congressional district is now about 760,000 people. Wyoming’s entire population is 581,381.
Due to recent controversial Supreme Court decisions, the EC now threatens permanent minority rule. Four Republican presidents in U. S. history have lost the popular vote yet won the White House, the last two in the 21st Century. In 2016, Trump won the EC by just 79,000 votes in 3 swing states (MI, WI, PA).
Presidential campaigning is now concentrated in just 7 or so states where polls show a less than 3 point difference between candidates. Most people are forced to rely on the media, including social media, where many “ads” are generated by our enemies, especially Russia among others. This occurred in 2016 and has only gotten worse.
Which brings me back to the cartoon.
Why do some Cowboy State Daily readers and pundits hate California, New York, and other “blue” states?
They are places where millions of good ordinary people live and work. California has a $3.9 trillion GDP, highest in the nation, 5th highest on the planet. New York is 3rd. By comparison, Wyoming is 50th!
California has about 10,280,000 Democratic and 5,390,000 Republican voters. In Wyoming, there are about 190,000 Republicans and 27,000 Democrats, of which I am one.
My vote is meaningless because all 3 Wyoming EC votes will go for Trump, whether I like it or not (and I don’t). Conversely, the millions of Republican votes from blue states are equally meaningless.
This election will be determined by the same few swing states, not California! By law, Trump shouldn’t even be on the ballot, and yet here we are on the brink of fascism.
Jim McEvoy
Powell
