The Nature of Things

As you may have heard, the United States had a presidential election last Tuesday. One of the candidates, a uniquely qualified woman, received over 60 million votes, approximately 1.2 million votes more than her opponent.  So, naturally, her opponent, a misogynist, racist, xenophobic, anti-intellectual, anti-science, admitted sexual predator, who seems incapable of moving his lips without lying, will become our next president.  This travesty is imposed on us by our anachronistic, profoundly undemocratic way of selecting our president and vice-president. These officers are not elected by the direct vote of citizens; the majority does not rule. Instead, they are selected by an outdated mechanism called the Electoral College , a product of our slave-holding beginnings as a nation. We are still paying the price of that original sin.  And so, for the second time in sixteen years, the candidate who received fewer votes in the election will become president. The will of the...

Less than three weeks now until election day and I get more and more frustrated and angry every time I think about it. Not about the campaigns or the candidates, although there is plenty there to be angry and frustrated about. No, what frustrates me is our antiquated system of electing presidents and the knowledge that, as passionately as I may care about this election, my vote won't make one iota of difference! You see, I live in Texas, a state that is completely dominated politically by anti-critical-thinking, evolution and climate change-denying, gun-worshiping, anti-women, immigrant-hating, gay-bashing, Bible-thumping tea party Republicans. And those people get to decide who gets Texas' electoral votes and it's only the electoral votes that matter in a presidential election. The individual votes of people like me who do not agree with the majority do not count at all. For all practical purposes, we might as well sit at home on election day. It is the same for citizens w...