A little history lesson

Regarding Jessica Sutton’s Dec. 8 letter, “Election 2000: Let’s live by real democracy”: Here are a couple of points to consider. The United States is not a democracy; it is a representative republic and union of fifty sovereign states. The Electoral College, for all its perceived unfairness, provides the means by which the Union of sovereign states selects the leader of the country formed in the Union. The constitutional amendment required to eliminate the Electoral College and the extra recognition of the individual states it represents will never happen.

Now a little history lesson. Andrew Jackson did have the majority of electoral votes in 1824; he just did not receive the 50 percent plus one majority required in the Constitution. The election went to the House. Henry Clay, who came in third and had collected electoral votes, cut a deal with John Quincy Adams, putting his support and his electors behind Adams in return for the vice presidency. Adams then had the required majority and was certified by Congress.

And finally, as close as this election was, we would be recounting every county in the country right now if we had direct elections of the president. Could this republic survive the Florida scenario played out in every state?

Marysville