The Electoral College: One More Thought Gail Heriot

Appropos of nothing in particular:

Loyal readers with superhuman memories may recall that I blogged about the Electoral College a month or two before the 2004 elections.  (Here, here, and here.)  Back then, I was worried that the Electoral College tends to encourage pork-barrel spending, since it causes candidates to pay inordinate attention to battleground states and ignore the states that are locked up.  (Think steel tariffs for Pennsylvania, Medicare drug benefits for retired Floridians.)

I’m still worried about that.  But I have another, much smaller point.  The Electoral College may also contribute to the general tendency toward political polarization in the country.  No, I’m not saying it has a large effect, but it may nevertheless be worth thinking about.  Bush didn’t even make an effort to win California.  No money was spent on ads.  Political activists were not pressed to write letters to the editor, walk the polls, or put bumper stickers on their cars, etc.  The same is true for Kerry in Texas.  And I suspect it’s also the case for other “safe states” like Alabama, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wyoming.  Campaigns cost a lot of money, and it makes sense to put the money where it can have an impact. 

Consequently, if you live in California (or any other safe state), you hardly ever heard from your political opponents during the election.  This is not because they don’t exist.  Even the reddest and bluest parts of the country have substantial minorities of citizens who are members of the “loyal opposition.”  But when campaign spending is subdued, it may be that the public debate will be subdued as well.  And when that happens, it’s easy to forget that they are people out their–maybe even people that you like and respect–who don’t agree with you on significant matters of public policy.  People who think their political opponents are from some far away place will tend to hold more extreme views.

Meanwhile, of course, the poor guys in the battleground states want nothing more than to escape the constant barrage of politics.  And who can blame them?