Response to "Here's the scary way Trump could win without the electoral or popular vote"

The President of the United STATES is always elected by - the STATES. Even if a contingent election is required in the House - where each State delegation gets ONE Vote to cast! - when no candidate receives the required Majority of Electoral Votes from the STATES.

TO THE EDITOR:
 
Stephen Marche is from Canada, a constitutional monarchy. America grew from 13 former colonies who overthrew the king and charted their own future. Marche purports to dive into a little known American election scenario and reach the right conclusions. Respectfully, if Canadians are to be anxious about US contingent elections (last held in 1837), Americans were appalled by the Canadian Prime Minister putting a hold on private bank accounts of long-haul truck drivers in 2022. Canadians might be thinking, ‘she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.’ Touche.
 
What should Canadians want from a US President? For starters, going eye to eye with the world’s dictators. How concerned were our northern neighbors about Ukraine when Orange Man was in office? Did they breathe a bit easier about North Korea? How about border security, Keystone Pipeline and overall energy independence? 

When he wasn’t sending mean tweets, Trump took care of business. And he did so while the Deep State and leftists staged multiple kangaroo courts that cost taxpayers a fortune and came to nothing. And while Marche is correct that Americans can be forgiving (what First World people aren’t?), the reasons have to do with hypocrisy of the media industrial complex and the Biden Justice Department. Trump faces document charges that are not illegal for a President; Biden is getting a pass for having taken documents as Vice-President, which is absolutely illegal, no exceptions. America’s most renowned legal scholars dismiss the New York business records charges. And the court parade in Georgia has been pushed into 2025. Regarding that “rape defamation” case, there’s this: “NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court set aside a judge's ruling that Donald Trump could be sued for defamation by E. Jean Carroll after denying he raped her...” 

As for America’s 2024 presidential election, what Marche calls “matters for historical curiosity” have always been taken seriously by those of us who understand basic civics. For starters, “the will of the majority” that matters in US presidential elections is the will of the majority of STATES. America doesn’t have national elections or a peoples’ president. The winning candidate secures support from multiple regions of the country. POTUS stands for “President of the United STATES.” The “will of the people” is expressed twice in every state, in primary and general elections. That’s how it works in a representative republic. Meanwhile, those "election deniers” Marche references come from a long line of objectors that include Hillary Clinton and the Washington Post.
 
The last thing the Electoral College is, in the 21st Century, is “arcane.” In 2020 we experienced election controversies in six different states. Of the 20 neighboring states, not one was impacted ... expressly because the Electoral College operated as intended. 

Let’s talk about (blue) California and (red) Texas (it used to be the opposite), red Wyoming and blue Vermont. The only question the Constitution asks is: do small and large states have an equal right to exist? Do they all deserve a place at the table when it comes to governance? The Constitution says ‘Yes.’ And by the way, Wyoming has three electors, California has 54 — more than the total number of electors representing the 12 least populous states, half of which are blue.
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America’s Founders created operating documents for the long haul. Today the country covers 7 time zones and is the desired home of millions of dreamers the world over. We wish Canadians well, but let’s tend to our own houses.

Roberta Schlechter
​Portland, Oregon

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