The high cost of Electoral College

The US President is elected through the Electoral College system of appointed Electors, which for each state are equal to the sum of congressional representatives and the state’s two senators. In the past, the winner usually also received the majority of the popular vote. While President Obama won both electoral and popular votes with a comfortable margin, the Republican presidential winners on both sides of him, George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump, did not gather the majority of the popular vote, just a marginal win of the Electoral. Bush won with only 48% of total votes, Trump with 46%, while Obama gathered 53% of the popular vote and 68% of the electoral votes, totaling 365, vs. Bush’ 271 and Trump’s 304. Not exactly a landslide for Trump, as he claimed himself.
Since George H.W. Bush’ rather impressive win 30 years ago, with 53% of popular votes and 426 Electorals, no Republican has won the US presidency without the help of the Electoral system, but at what cost? Although Justice Sandra Day O’Connor later regretted that she, together with the Conservative majority of the Supreme Court, helped George W. Bush win the presidency in 2000, he won the Electoral by just a single vote, but lost the popular vote to Al Gore. The big question, though, is how much has that cost? If the Democratic nominee Al Gore had won instead, likely the Afghanistan and Iraq wars would never have happened. There is even some speculation that the 9/11 terrorist attacks may have been prevented. Outgoing President Bill Clinton’s warning about what Osama bin Laden seemed to be up to, was essentially ignored by the incoming President George W. Bush. He even fired Arabic-fluent Americans at the Monterey Institute of International Studies because they allegedly were “gay”, leaving intercepted documents with clues to 9/11 untranslated until after the attacks. No doubt Al Gore would have taken Bill Clinton’s warnings seriously, and certainly not fired those able to translate related documents. He may not have been able to prevent 9/11, but would never have retaliated by attacking two Mid-East countries that had nothing to do with the attacks. Almost 20 years later, we are still fighting unwinnable wars, at tremendous cost in terms of lives, mayhem and destruction on all sides, with no real end in sight. Even some kind of future cease-fire will leave irreparable harm, our reputation and world-standing very much included. So, the overall extra cost of the Bush Republican administration, including tanked economy, overburdened veterans’ administration, long-term effects of war casualties, etc., etc.? We will never know.
Now we’re more than a year into another Republican presidency under Donald J. Trump, with no immediate end in sight. Trump’s main objective seems to be to destroy President Obama’s legacy and everything he accomplished, partly to right what the previous Republican administration had done. Despite compact obstruction from a Republican Congress, Obama managed to get us back on track again, only to find that Trump is busy destroying it all, at any cost. Deliberately appointing unqualified people for key positions, both in the various cabinets and important departments, will have costly consequences. The cost of rebuilding functions that often took decades to develop, will add to the cost of below par execution of functions essential for a modern, progressive society. The cost of air, water and ground pollution due to lax or removed regulations, is immeasurable. With Republican administrations, forget about meaningful gun control, as well as human treatment of immigrants, while education, research and science are deemphasized, – but at what cost?
And with the last two Republican presidents, the US Supreme Court has been stacked with conservatives, probably for decades to come, while a Republican Congress deprived President Obama for a selection that rightfully belonged to him. As a result, a more socially friendly interpretation of among other things the 2nd Amendment, has been out of the question, which again has carried, and continues to carry, a high cost. The most recent tragic reminder is the Yountville killings, by a PTSD affected veteran from a war that we should not have been engaged in, if it weren’t for the ever so costly Electoral College.