Wondrous Things

That which induces one to wonder is wondrous.   Among the many things which were stimulating wonder and investigation was the Electoral College.  I wonder why I didn't apply for that school when I was thinking of applying to colleges and universities.  The truth is, I only got one app sent, maybe two.  Auburn wanted something more which I ignored.  I applied there and FSU at the beginning of my senior year.  FSU pretty much automatically said ok due to test scores. I was clueless.

Some schools expect some level of overall gpa.  If you have a year to go, and you aren't making super grades now, seems wise to withhold admittance until the book is closed.  So, I took the easy way.  In-state school that is the greatest distance from Miami.  Too bad all wisdom ended there.

Anyway, I've never set foot on the Electoral College campus.  However, I hear some talk about people who want to do away with the institution.  This is where freedom gets tricky, and democracy, over valued.  Pure democracy is certainly not a high virtue, it just is.   You have to limit what the collective can inflict on the minority.

Both the Senate and the Electoral College are hedges against the tyranny of the majority.  That is what it is called when freedom of the few is restricted by the many, even if it doesn't infringe on them.  The first premise to get is that the USA is a democracy in a republic.  A constitutional republic.

That means there are preset limits and parameters set which are supposed to contain those with power lust.  It's a losing battle but it does slow them down a lot.  Over time, it slows them less.

Anyway, there is a wisdom to weighting some power by geography.  For one thing it more evenly gives voice to a variety of the subcultures in this country.  I can tell you that Miami and small town Wisconsin are worlds apart.  A native of either would experience sever culture shock if he found himself in the other's town.    For me, moving to North Carolina was a huge cultural adjustment.

Eventually I learned the language and even spoke it.  Maybe I adapted because I had decided I liked NC and the people and that was that.   I absorbed some of the culture, but a real southerner can tell I'm like southern lite.  Miami left my bunch with no real sense of a culture.  Miami was never quite like the heartland even before it became majority hispanic.  We spoke english, which may have created a bond with America, and most of Miami was from NY and the midwest--interesting mix.  New Yorkers had a bad stereotype going for them back then.  Apparently there were plenty of volunteers to keep the reputation going.

A direct election based on total popular vote could result in a few big cities, primarily coastal, having control.  It could leave some very diverse, long established sub cultures out of the sphere of influence altogether.  As much of this country that is federal land, who wants their landscape controlled by a few cities which are very different from your town?

Anyway, I wondered about that but see it as a kind of safeguard.  Even if the guy who wins gets fewer popular votes, and that turns out to be the current neo-bolshevik, I won't change my tune about that fine place of higher learning.

I have a friend who thinks replacing Biden with Putin would be just what is needed to fend off this Romney fellow.

I forgot what else caused me to wonder, drat!

It seems I end up with people playing music everywhere I go.  Another little party and the people all end up playing.  That is mostly what gets me invited, I think, although it goes beyond that after awhile. It seems I am somehow a fixture in this ongoing network.   I meet some interesting people this way.  It puzzles me, though, whatever 'it' is.

I've never seen so much bluegrass and country as out in the sticks California.  That's why they call it country and western.   I'd never given much credence to western part.  Now I understand.

It is good.

I hope that storm doesn't mess up your life or your stuff.

Hmm...a few of these musicians have the means and expertise to possibly hash over some of the ideas I've had in the late 70s.  The times have almost caught up, except government subsidizes their cronies while people like me would just deal with the market.   I have no excuse for never following up on this.  I found the burn came from unexpected places so the one I did follow awhile was abandoned in confusion.  It worked, at least.

Maybe this accelerated rate of meeting those who would get this stuff, and know the flaws, is not a mistake.  Maybe it is one of those new saints delving in the affairs of man.  Saint Poccahontos.  Maybe her holiness spells it otherwise.  I'll learn the right way so that this encouraging trend continues.

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