The functional compromise between agricultural and industrial, and later rural and metropolitan, states that is the Electoral College was highlighted in 2000 and 2016, when the popular vote and Electoral College chose different winners. In both cases, the losing candidates, losing parties and losing electors grudgingly accepted loss and formally expressed hope that winners would grow into their new positions of responsibility.
But now in 2020, the rural contingent is formally unwilling to accept Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president, despite their commanding popular vote and Electoral College wins. In their petty response, the rural contingent undermines the very foundation that supports their disproportionate influence. Their apparently limitless disdain for all institutions undermines America, and so for our sake as a country, it’s time to enact a national popular vote that reflects the will of the majority that holds institutions above petty self-interest.
Bill Johnson, Salt Lake City