This is in response to Eugene Ceschini's letter, “I want my vote to count,” regarding the Electoral College. Obviously, they did not teach “civics” where Mr. Ceschini went to high school; otherwise, he would know that our country is not a democracy, but a representative republic.
There is a reason why our brilliant forefathers set up our electoral system in this way: to give every citizen in every state a say in who will be our president.
Mr. Ceschini wants his vote to count; I get that. But so does the farmer in Nebraska, the cowboy in Wyoming, the seamstress in Idaho, etc.
You get the point? If our national elections were based on popular vote only, the candidates for office would only campaign in one-fifth of the country.
But more importantly, those popular votes are concentrated too many times in poor, inner-city and coastal areas that strictly vote for government largess.
Hillary Clinton won New York City, 80 percent to 20 percent. But as recently as 2011, New York City spent a staggering $9,442 per person in government benefits. What does that tell you?
As Alexis de Tocqueville said, a democracy can exist only until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. Today, we are at that point.
Tom Gallant
Findlay
