Electoral College works if …

In a recent column, Opinion Editor Gary Crooks/SR comments:

Nothing exemplifies pure politics better than debates over the Electoral College. We all knew the deal going in, so the winner of that contraption is rightly the president of the United States.

But spare me the invocations of fairness and the founding fathers, because we’ve junked what they wanted.

Donald Trump, as we’ve been told over and over, won because elites overlooked “ordinary Americans.” But the founders also overlooked them in devising the Electoral College. They didn’t trust regular folks with a popular election.

In 2012, Trump called the Electoral College “phony,” when, for whatever reason, he thought Mitt Romney was going to win the popular vote. “The loser wins,” he tweeted. “Revolution!” Now that’s he’s the “loser,” there’s no need for pitchforks and torches. In fact, he’s called his victory a “landslide.”

Let’s be honest: If the situation were reversed, Team Clinton would drop its arguments, and Team Trump would pick them up. More here.