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How the Electoral College Virus is Infecting the Nominating Process

By Jack M. Balkin

Today's Washington Post has an article that discusses "The Downside of Obama Strategy," i.e., that he actually has the audacity to believe that every Democrat's (and, perhaps, every American's) vote should count equally. The article notes (accurately) that Clinton has done better in large, electoral-vote-rich states than has Obama, which has ostensibly provoked fears about the prospects of his winning in November. It doesn't matter that he has received more popular votes than Clinton in contested elections--which allows us to omit Michigan and Florida--and, of course, that he has won more delegates. All that matters, according to a number of quoted Clinton supporters, is the vote in large states. So what we have is an attempt to apply to the nominating process the Electoral College's effective disenfranchisement of those unlucky enough to live in states where they are the political minority and the insane emphasis on a relatively few "battleground" states . One gather that Clinton will lose to Obama in today's caucuses in Wyoming. But, hey, it doesn't matter what Wyoming Democrats think, because they live in a Republican state. Similar logic, of course, would dictate that it doesn't matter what California Republicans think, because, after all, it is a safely Democratic state. Why any American committed to a 21st century notion of democracy (or even a Republican Form of Government) would defend this approach to selecting our most important national political official is beyond me.

Incidentally, for the record, I don't concede the Clintonite point that Obama is any less likely to carry the large Democratic states than is Sen. Clinton, but that is basically beside the point relative to the argument being made by her supporters about which states are to be taken seriously and which to be utterly dismissed (can you spell "Texas," which will, when the caucus votes are finally counted, will be found to have given more delegates to Obama?).

Full post as published by Balkinization on March 08, 2008 (boomark / email).

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