Remember Michael Dukakis? The Democrats’ presidential nominee who lost to George Bush (the elder) in 1988?
How do you feel about the fact that he lost? When was the last time you even thought about him.
Well read his quote, pulled from Mark Hensch’s article at thehill.com, about the 2016 presidential election, and see why you should be happy he never got into the Oval Office:
I suppose we can be kind, and just chalk this up to Mr. Dukakis’ age (he’s 83 now). But there are many, many people his age and older who still have their full mental acuity, so I’m not especially inclined to do so.
Note to Mr. Dukakis in two parts:
1)Hillary did not win this election no matter how many votes she got. That is not how elections are won. They are won by electoral votes.
Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump tried to win the popular vote and, therefore, how it came out is entirely incidental.
If the popular vote meant a thing, both candidates would have campaigned far differently, and spent far more time in high-population states, while ignoring most of the other states. For all you know, it would have resulted in Donald Trump winning by even more than he did.
You know this perfectly well Therefore, your claim about Hillary Clinton winning is not just wrong, it is dishonest, because you KNOW it’s wrong.
2) Telling Democrats to put abolition of the electoral system as its highest priority, or any priority at all, is telling them to waste their time and effort.
Mr. Dukakis, have you read the constitution lately? The only way to eliminate the electoral system is by an amendment, and amendment requires 3/4 of the states (that would be 38 of the 50) ratifying it.
No electoral system would mean candidates would campaign in, and prioritize, the issues for the highest-population areas – covering maybe 8 – 10 states – and virtually ignore the rest, because there wouldn’t be enough votes there to bother with.
Even if all 10 of the most populous states loved your idea, that would leave Democrats 28 short, all of which would have to be drawn from states which, in doing so, would be voluntarily making themselves meaningless to presidential candidates.
You know better than to think such a thing would ever happen.
I hope this has been helpful, Mr. Dukakis. I wish you all the best, and hope you are happy and productive.
