SACRAMENTO BEE's FIRST EDITORIAL OF THE NEW YEAR: "It's Time to Ditch The Electoral College"

Although the editorial is couched within the safe, equivocal tone of "Gee, we're not sure what it should be changed to," their solution may have leaked out near the end of the piece: "The presidency is a national office and election of the president should reflect the directly expressed will of the American people." A direct expression of the American people is direct democracy. There you have it. Add the numbers up, winner take all.

There is one problem with this. America is quite large and different regions of the country call dear to different interests. That much is obvious. If coordinating campaign stops is governed solely by population, then regional interests are devalued more than they are now. Don't think so? Try this. George W. Bush won the 2004 election with a total vote of approximately 60,600,000 votes, to John Kerry's approximately 57,280,000 votes. (Source) In order for any president to get just enough to win, he/she need only do simple math. The population of the five largest states in the United States is approximately 106,000,000 people. (Source) OK, not all of these people vote. So take the population of the largest ten states, which is about 157,000,000. All a contender needs to win is approximtely 60,000,000 votes. You get the picture. A direct democracy further marginalizes small states.

So what, the small states have it coming to them, the punks. Well, it is a problem if presidential candidates have zero incentive to campaign in the smaller states because there are not enough votes to make it worthwhile. The smallest 15 states each have less than 2,000,000 residents residing there, and seven states have less than 1,000,000 residents. I have been around long enough to have read and heard the same cynical refrain from people representing every political stripe: Politicians do what is in there interest to get reelected. If this is true, then under a direct democracy it is very likely that the smaller states will become virtually ignored. Sad.

And another thing: Whatever happened to the Bee's enthusiasm for government activism to uplifting the disenfranchised and underdogs. Oh, those less populous states are . . . Red States.