If the Founding Fathers were the Founder Fathers

We are living in a highly polarized society where you are either a Republican or Democrat. In this world, if the donkey says up, the elephant says down. If the elephant says white, the donkey says black. I chose those colors on purpose. And seemingly when positions get reversed, both sides flip-flop and take 180-degree positions, despite all the tweets and written record that proves otherwise.

It’s quite sad really.

It’s also detrimental to the future of this democracy, especially when factoring in Darwinian proof of concept that states, “it is not the strongest of species that survives; nor the most intelligent, but rather the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

• Strong we are (thanks, Yoda)
• Intelligent is debatable.
• But what about adaptable to change?

Take the very foundation of our election system. The Electoral College.

While I respect why it exists and was created in the first place, the methodology today is flawed. It’s broken. It’s no ones fault. It’s a direct result and product of technology. It’s yet another example of a business model that has been disrupted and disintermediated. So maybe it’s time we look at it like the Toll Booth business (when last did you see an actual toll-booth operator?) and join the irreparable march of progress.

Or get left behind.

So let me state my case and make my argument.

1. When did this hyper-partisanship and polarization begin? Or at least when did it snowball out of control? I would argue Bush v Gore and more recently, Trump v Clinton. In both cases, the Democrat won the Popular Vote, but lost the election. Translation: More than 50% of the country felt they got robbed.  
2. Most of the country doesn’t vote. Why? Because we didn’t “Rock the Vote” enough? Because people don’t watch MTV anymore? No, because their vote doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter. If you live in California or New York, you might as well put all your energy into sending angry tweets to the President, showing up at an AOC rally or growing your hipster beard, but your vote isn’t going to change a damn thing. So who’s vote does?
3. The swing states of course. Where Ohio goes, so does the Nation. Is that fair? Is it fair that – for the most part – only a handful of States determine the election outcome? How democratic is that?
4. Which brings us to the “The Median Voter Theory” – a theory that has been widely held for the longest time; one that recognizes only a fraction of voters will inevitably tip the scales in one or the other direction. For the most part, these voters most likely register themselves as “Independents” and they hold all the power. It stands to reason that if we can identify them by name, address, social security number or most recently, MAID (Mobile Advertising ID), we can focus our limited resources on winning them over, right? 
5. Last election (2016), it got even more precise; more scientific; more granular, thanks to Jared and his microtargeting precision approach. Trump’s campaign zeroed in on specific households in specific neighborhoods in specific districts in specific states to great effect. This was like a GPS laser targeted missile sent from an AI-powered drone and the result was perfection.

Yes, the argument can be made that the Republicans were just better Digital Marketers than the Democrats. That’s fair. And all is fair in love and electioneering. Today we have a plethora of data and analytical tools; a litany of programmatic, native and automated approaches. Why not take full advantage of them?

Sure, some of the methods were questionable, especially when factoring in Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Wikileaks and the Russians. It’s debatable of course based on which cage in the zoo you sit.

My opinion is irrelevant. I’m just an immigrant, citizen and voter of one in a State (Connecticut), where my vote doesn’t count.

I wonder what our framers and founding fathers would say, were they alive today? Would they dig their heels in to preserve an antiquated system or would they act like scrappy founders and pivot their fledgling democracy prototype in order to arrive at a better proof of concept?

I doubt Republicans will ever win the Popular Vote again, which makes everything in this op-ed piece a non-starter (even though I’m right!) The United States of America continues to become ever more diverse and a true melting pot. White dudes continue to dwindle in terms of percentages and at some point; there will be enough rainbow voters (even with all the apathy) to put them (The Republican Party) out of business. That’s a fact. So is the reality that the Republicans are one election loss away from being plunged into the kind of chaos that can only end up with some kind of cathartic and massive restructure or transformation.

Sounds like your standard case of disruption to me!

So what should it be replaced with? The Popular Vote obviously, which I believe is pretty much the standard or norm everywhere in the developed and democratic world. Dictators, Autocrats and Communists not included!

Of course, if you’re a Republican, you’re going to blindly and categorically disagree with me and if you’re a Democrat, you’ll blindly and vehemently agree with my recommendation.

Which is perhaps why we’re in this mess in the first place!