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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><br></span><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>>>…</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>To an outsider it is obvious that the US should update its constitution. But I guess that is not likely, is it?<o:p></o:p></span></p></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;color:#222222'>></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>>…<span style='color:#222222'> Oh? What do you suggest? The electoral college for one, I suppose. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>>…Yes. I see no reason why a voter in </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>Wyoming</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'> should have 66.7 times more power over deciding who gets to be a senator than a voter in California, or why the Wyoming guy should have 18.3 times more power in choosing the next president than the California guy. … John K Clark<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>The electoral college protects the power and relevance of state governments. The Constitution was set up to enable states to set up competing governments, to achieve optimal solutions by competing with each other under the mandate of open borders between them. That whole system was absolutely brilliant, for competition breeds excellence. So keep the scope of the Federal government limited, and require the heavy lifting to be done by states. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>The constitution was designed to have a lot of inertia. There are mechanisms in place to change it, as it has been 17 times after the Bill of Rights made it into the bedrock foundation of US government. But it takes strong collective will to carry out a constitutional amendment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>The electoral college introduces all manner of weirdness, but it is good weirdness. It helps protect (to some extent) against ballot cheating. This is particularly relevant when we realize that after all that has happened, some states still maintain some form of intentionally non-auditable machine-based voting. The EC protects state governments. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>The relevance of state governments will become far greater in the foreseeable future, for they will be called upon to knit together a social safety net when the Federal level net rips apart.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>