Letters: Electoral college, distressing inauguration
Electoral College and Design of our country
The Electoral College is under attack because of emotion over the election and ignorance about how the world’s most successful republic works. Here's some perspective to help reinforce the importance of the EC:
A candidate is elected President of the United States, not President of the American people. Therefore, in order to become President one must win a majority of states, not a majority of votes. On election day there are technically 51 individual elections for President. Each state, plus the District of Columbia chooses its candidate. Since some states are more populated than others, those states have more pull in the Electoral College vote, just like they do in the House of Representatives. Whoever wins a majority of electoral votes wins the presidency.
Although many teachers, pundits and elected officials like to proclaim the USA a democracy, our nation is a republic. In a republic, leaders are elected to make decisions on behalf of the people; in a democracy, the people gather to cast votes on every decision. Therefore, the Founding Fathers ensured that our nation has an electoral--not popular--vote in order to safeguard against a democracy. Democracies are prone to radical swings of opinion and tyrannical popular leaders because all it takes is a majority of votes to make an agenda into law. The EC is a stopgap against historic blunders in governance.
Lastly, the USA is a federation where power is designed to be divided between national and state governments. This balance gave our country national strength against foreign enemies but allowed most laws to be crafted at the state level. Scrapping the Electoral College would be another step towards increasing the overreach of the federal government at the expense of the states. Its elimination is contrary to the historic design of our country.
- Harry Haas, Luzerne County
Inauguration Day distress
Flying the American flag upside down is recognized as a sign of dire distress or of extreme danger to life or property. I planned to fly my flag upside down on Friday, January 20, as a protest to the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the next President of the United States. However, according to the U.S. Flag Code, it is not OK to do so in protest.
I sincerely believe the new President will prove a disaster for our nation. Call me a sore loser but I think all U.S. citizens--those who voted for and those who voted against Mr. Trump--will be losers if he continues his juvenile and irrational comments and tweets.
Because of his petulant, thin-skinned and narcissistic behavior, I'm particularly concerned for all the members of our Armed Forces and their families.
The Donald has been complaining about fake news stories. Let us not forget that he initiated fake news eight years ago by declaring that President Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen.
While he remains in office it will be difficult to sing the words to "You're a Grand Old Flag". That line about "there's never a boast or a brag" will be meaningless whenever Trump begins self-praising himself.
But there's a chance the new President won't finish four years in office. His questionable business dealings may catch up with him or he may copy Sarah Palin and step down before his term is up.
- Robert Balthaser, Lebanon