The wisdom of our Founding Fathers. Once again we have a president who has the majority of the Electoral College votes but doesn’t have the majority of the popular vote. When one looks closely at the numbers, if you eliminate the large majority of Democratic votes in California and New York, the majority votes and the Electoral Colleges votes are in close parallel.

Now for the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. As Madison states in the Federalist Papers Additionally, in The Federalist No. 10, James Madison argued against “an interested and overbearing majority” and the “mischiefs of faction” in an electoral system. He defined a faction as “a number of citizens whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”

What was then called republican government (i.e. federalism, as opposed to direct democracy), with its varied distribution of voter rights and powers, would countervail against factions. Madison further postulated in The Federalist No. 10 that the greater the population and expanse of the Republic, the more difficulty factions would face in organizing due to such issues as sectionalism.

Now, if we had a popular vote, Hilary would be president by majority vote, but the nation as a whole voted for Trump.

This is a perfect example of “a number of citizens who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” I for one am glad California and New York do not control presidential elections in the United States.