About the bandwagon rush to junk the Electoral College: If the current situation were reversed, would Goreites and Naderites be scrambling so righteously to jump on? If not, the thought that changing the Constitution should involve reasons more profound than relatively-ephemeral concerns should give some premature riders pause. At issue here, among other things, is cultural diversity. To some limited extent, the E.C. enforces a degree of attention to differences in regional cultures and sentiments, which will be completely disabled by promotional processes in a system oriented simply to massed popular vote. The degree to which this partial reinforcement of residual political differentiation may work more broadly to reinforce residual cultural difrferentiation is surely debateable. But to assume its effect negligible is foolish; and to dismiss this subject is wrong-headed, in the face of the forces and momentum of monoculturalization, which will only be abetted by discarding the E.C. Michael Rossman <mrossman@igc.org>
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