hoosierville

      From Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo

I've been watching closely as Hillary Clinton's popular vote lead has grown and grown since election day. It now stands at over 2.6 million votes, a 2 percentage point lead in the popular vote. Of course, the electoral college determines who becomes President. But contrary to what some say, the popular vote is still important. It shows that Trump will be a minority President. It also helps focus Democrats on what did an did not go wrong.

But I wanted to flag a short opinion column which I believe captures a critical element of what is happening in the country right now: our constitutional architecture can allow popular minorities to dominate or at least disproportionately influence the nation's politics. But not permanently. This was the case for most of the 19th and 20th century. But it can't do so forever. Even in this period of nationwide Republican dominance I think most Republicans realize it is a fragile grip.

Here's the rather breathtaking column by Michael Barone, in which he argues that the electoral college is important because it is preventing California from exercising 'colonial' rule over the rest of the country.It is a very unlovely argument. It has a number of statistical ins and outs. But these two passages capture it.

It is a very unlovely argument. 

So much more at link.

Just read it.