European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes August 1977 James Kilpatrick an 18th Century Man i and quite proud of it Chicago an unhappy letter turned up in my mail last the next Day i new out Here to debate Birch Bayh on the Issue of direct National election of our pres the two tic the Teller came from one of my editors in a Western if it want an unhappy letter for it was for he was can celing my and Why he Felt i was blackening the name of conservative thought by expounding 18th Century he added Kilpatrick is simply not living in the 20th the thought occurs to Philo that in the 13 years i have been writing a conservative i never have been cancelled for a better reason the 18th Century had some splendid but senator appreciates them no More than the disgruntled gentleman who just gave me the our debate before a Section of the Amer ican bar association went to a proposal Hiil Bayh has been pushing for the past 10 years he wants to Amend the Constitution so As to abolish the electoral College and to provide for popular his proposal i sir i is languishing in the judiciary but it has 42 cosponsors and some impressive support from such outfits As the Aba the Resolution could be reported whenever the leadership feels it has enough cloture votes to strangle Alabam As Jim Allen and 30 of his if Lih Century col leagues All of us Isth Century boys stick together on this Baths proposed amendment rests upon two arguments one might be termed the other Nei ther one is the preventive argument is to this effect thai at cast once in our in the electoral College system produced president who lacked a majority of the popular vote that the system has produced some other near misses thai the risk of political malfunction is Loo great to be Loler aled any longer he system should be scrapped and swapped for direct election the positive argument goes this Way that regardless of the the present system is undemocratic thai in a presi denial every voters vote should count equally thai fairness demands that the presidency always go to the candidate Wilh the greatest number of popular Voles it the electoral College system was one of the compromises of but it was a principled ii reflected the intention of the framers an intention thai runs through the whole of the Constitution to prevent an excessive concentration of Power in any part of our the electoral system is a manifestation of the federalism that underlies the whole Struc whenever we act we act through the mechanism of our Baths revolutionary proposal and it is precisely that would do terrible Lence to the Federal under the present the people vote democratic within their the electors Are Mere conduits for transmit Ting the political state by As the late professor Martin Diamond has pm the present system was devised not merely to determine whom the people want but also to answer a corollary ques Tion whom docs Colorado want whom docs Virginia want presidential Cam explicitly or recognize the subdivisions of electoral Power within the slates Bayh said in the course of our shaking his that he simply cannot understand How anyone can oppose inc idea of simple Majol arianism in a presiden tial it is so Clear to what could be simpler you pit a Gerald kurd against a Jimmy and whoever gels the most Voles wins the office just like but this simplistic View was disputed Long ago by one of Baths closest friends John a pretty fair ugh Cen Tury Man once compared our constitutional arrangement to the solar you could no More displace the electoral College without affecting every thing said than you could displace a they ail revolve Ogeth i c a Sims r John Roche could Carter relax on Vineyard marthas Nathaniel watching the United states disintegrate Over the Issue of slav thoughtfully suggested the country should Lake a Long As by Vance goes pingpong ing around the Middle East Wilh the simple missions of settling the arabis Rae i dispute and the greek turkish pm Brogulo Over Wilh inc Prospect of then zipping on to peking to normalize Hua i have a the whole foreign policy elite should go to mar thas Vineyard and relax until labor president Carter and his family would be Welcome swordfish and striped Bass arc in the gourmet league with cat and Amy would love Oak Bluffs wooden horses an authentic old Ca the presidents presence might create a problem for the common wealth of unless shrimps have Learned to whistle to use one of Khrushchev favourites Jimmy would look feel and Call a town normally such a gathering would go off without diplomatic but marthas Vineyard has a special prodded by our the great and general is losing by amputation on third of the lower there is attrition in the slate Senate but that the work of grand and Petty the theory behind this sponsored by the league of person was that it would improve but in net terms the bigger the the less variety of representation in the minorities will find it even harder to get into the one distinctive minority deprived of its representation in the statehouse Are the is the inhabitants of marthas Vine and Cuttyhunk their claim paraphrases the argument of the revolutionary Era polemicist Daniel Dulany that it is impossible for residents of a geographically distinctive area in Dulany s the american provinces to be represented by those from a unfamiliar environment in the vineyards by As English could not by the very nature of things represent american it is impossible for some Clown from the Mainland to speak for the with this in the you can anticipate the sort of problem president Carter would chatting with the folks at his Island some of the visiting intelligent Sia might get after him about Diego human rights in Korea and other but what happens when Jerry Mccarthy the vineyards rep who has been turfed out by the reformers asks the president about taxation without represent suggest that the preservation of peace de pends upon massachusetts1 willingness to withdraw from occupied territories and permit the growth of an Independent Island Good staff work would provide him with evidence that the Vineyard Dukes officially the Consort of dutchess was illegally seized from new York by Massachusetts Bay in the 17th under heavy he could then urge a conference in where the governor of by Andrei and the commissioners of Dukes and would work towards a Geneva he might also Call for the end of illegal settlements on the Vine Yard by of islanders until the residual question of sovereignty is above he must count on Public opinion bring the contestants to their u a particular Leader of one of the Par lies involved should find that his position is to direct comr Aventon w the position of All the other parties involved were would be a great impetus on that Leader to conform with the overwhelming tos attract from Carters recent remarks about a Geneva conference on the Middle East is surely in this instance to the Leader of the occupy ing in afraid the Vineyard is not the place for Carter to relax with Rhode new Connecticut and other frontline including new Hamp espousing an Independent Island Homeland the presidents remarks could put Massachusetts in dire yet i Hwe 1bcmi off oper wion Reg hew tation surely this Falls under Rubric of Stilt if the whole National Security Basic human rights Why should the Vine apparatus took the rest of the month Yard be an occupied territory the Preshour world standing might Howe dents first option would be to say that he does not believe in interfering in the inter Nal affairs of Massachusetts he is confident his Good Friend Mike Dukakis would not tolerate any fundamental violations of human nobody is going to take the risk i might be right that too he might then to Opinham my remd in int Coburnm end cwt Ora on or Anim mood m Youmon m in no to w com term 01 Ropret Nunt m Van d to Sun Stolon or