When the Majority is the Minority

Here we are in the midst of Super Tuesday. Different candidates winning different states at different rates. This seems all too typical. What many may overlook is the fact that the winner may come out with somewhere around 40% of the party vote. This is also all too typical.

The problem I see here is that the next Republican candidate, and his platform respectively, will have the backing of just over 1/3 of all those he will soon represent. How is this representation? Will this person tailor his platform in order to better represent those 60% of people who didn't vote for him in the primaries? This is unlikely. Instead, if history is a trustworthy guide, the winner will ignore the beliefs and values of the 60% that caused them to vote for another candidate and act as if he and his platform have some mandate from heaven to stay the course.

My fears and frustrations were confirmed while recently watching Chris Matthews interview a delegate from New Jersey. He is an officeholder and has endorsed Mrs. Clinton. The question was what he would do were Clinton to lose the state. Would he delegate in a way that is consistent with the voice of the people, or would he stay true with his endorsement of Clinton? Without hesitation he vouched for the latter! While he admitted he would be going against the vox populi, he contended that he is duty-bound to stay true to his endorsement. Bye-bye representation. Bye-bye notion of delegation! Yet this is typical not only of delegation but of those who take home the gold and head on to the general election.

However this works out one thing is for sure: 2/3 of the American voters will be let down... once again. What an amazing system we have.