DougR,

Though I see the "area" issue as a non-issue if one is only considering acreage, what it does represent is that a diverse people have divergent interests that need to be protected--thus the electoral college.

It used to be seen as the last best hope for minorities to have representation. It seems public sentiment has turned a corner on which minority's needs, rights, and viewpoints are due consideration and represention.

As we are becoming a more poll-driven, pop-cultured, sheep-like society it's hard to qualify, but I wonder if any of this anti-constitution talk would be happening if the electoral/popular vote was reversed.

We are most certainly headed for a constitutional convention. There is just so much of the constitution that at least 50% of Americans no longer believes. It was written as a Gov't limitation--a la the Magna Carta, but we don't want a government that is limited in this way.

For the longest time we have doubted the possibility of a new civil war--mostly on the basis of our prosperity/lack of poverty. This presupposes a material mind-set. What about our extreme POVERTY of TRUST, JUSTICE, LOGIC AND EDUCATION, and SHARED VALUES? I am the ultimate pessamist I guess but I predict civil war and/or a CC in less than 10 years. I also predict that the new CC will make what was the US into essentially a different country.

In a poll taken in the 1950's the Question "Would you favor a return to a monarchy?" recieved a less than 2% positive response. The same poll done in 1997-8 recieved a 12% positive response.

The good news--it should inspire some great folk music. Public uprisings always do.

John