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Founders got it right

In his guest column of Dec. 5, Mr. Engle bemoans the fact that each state in the U.S. has an equal amount of Senators (2), regardless of population and claims that this gives smaller states unfair power.

It seems almost inconceivable that a man as seemingly well read as Mr. Engle would not be aware that we also have a House of Representatives in our Congress, as provided by the very same Constitution.

For example last year West Virginia, with 1.6 million citizens had (3) U.S. Representatives in Congress, while California (about 40 million citizens) had (53) and Florida, with 21 million people had (27) U.S. Reps.

Being that we are a collection of 50 separate, sovereign states, albeit different sized ones, it is important that consideration is provided for both an equal voice as members, but an acknowledgment and provision for the greater population in some states over others.

The good news is, our Founders understood this completely and wisely provided for both of these realities. In short, Mr. Engle’s fears, as well as his claims are wholly unfounded.

Which leads us to the question of why Mr. Engle would omit this fact, the knowledge of which is provided to students in every middle school Civics Class in virtually every county in this country?

It has been my experience that this usually occurs for one of two reasons;

A) Usually the writer is upset that a favorite candidate has lost an election due to the Electoral College, which Mr. Engle alluded to in his editorial),

…or B) He desires a national popular vote.

Our Founders understood all too well that without these Constitutional provisions, small population states like WV would have no voice or representation whatsoever in national matters and politicians would have no incentive to address our concerns.

At this point, I want to make clear that I am a political independent, so I am not writing this letter in deference to one party or platform over another. My concern is strictly for the preservation of the system of government that our Founders wisely and painstakingly gifted us.

If one takes a hard look at it, they will actually find that we in fact already have the best of both worlds; i.e. elements of the popular vote on the state level and a representative republic on the federal level.

Steven M. Devereaux

Belpre

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