The Electoral College chimera

Every four years there's a slew of opinion pieces about finally getting rid of the anachronism of the Electoral College. I've played that game myself, but it's one you can never win. We will never get rid of the Electoral College. In fact, we will never again make any substantive change to the Constitution.

Getting rid of the Electoral College, as argued once again in this post by Ryan Cooper at Washington Monthly, is one of those desirable but chimerical goals in American politics, like DC statehood. It will simply never happen.

So get over it, live with it. The article in Sunday's Times about the "The Vanishing Battleground" pointed out that in 1960 Nixon and Kennedy campaigned in virtually every state, whereas now the candidates only visit a handful of swing states -- and fewer are swinging all the time. That's OK with me. I don't need to see my candidate to vote for him (maybe someday her). And I don't mind missing out on all the mendacious campaign ads.

At a Washington dinner party recently, the host raised the speculation du jour about whether a victory by Obama in the Electoral College even if he loses the popular vote -- an outcome suggested by some of the polling at the time -- would prompt both parties to demand an end to the indirect vote for president. I said I didn't think it would and I, personally, have no problem with that scenario. After all, we lived with Bush for eight years and all the havoc he wreaked, and it's doubtful that he even won a legitimate Electoral College victory, let alone a popular vote.

We're stuck with the Electoral College, a Supreme Court that has way too much power, and an increasingly sclerotic set of political institutions (think of the anti-democratic obstacle of the Senate, exacerbated by the abuse of filibuster!). European countries by and large are much more flexible in adapting their institutions -- look at how France easily and quickly shortened the term of the president and aligned it better with the parliamentary terms.

But change has become virtually impossible. It's a situation that future generations will have to deal with.