As I sit down to craft yet another insightfuly, modest and witty column (Ed: let’s not go too overboard, shall we?), our nation is less than 24 hours away from engaging in the greatest activity of humankind ever. And if you will forgive this Monday-before-the-election musing, I’d like to suggest that even in this difficult time, when the choices for national leadership could not be more stark or more important, it could always be much worse. Sometimes a wee bit of historical perspective can help us understand where we are and how we got there. And I happen to have a wee bit of history to share. This column will appear on Election Day, so read quickly and then make sure you cast your ballot!

Even in these particularly challenging times we should revel in the simple fact that we are going to have an election. You see, for the overwhelming majority of human history the people did not pick their leaders. Kings and potentates were — according to the kings and potentates at least — picked by God. To oppose a king was to oppose the will of God. The famed 16th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote that kings are created by God because mankind needs rules. He asserted that life in the state of nature — meaning no government — would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” I’m guessing he was a real treat to have at parties. To avoid this Hobbsian nightmare, we got kings.

And then, a bunch of younger guys got some ideas about liberty and such back in 1776. In the most important political writing ever, a 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson wrote that governments are created not by God, but by the people themselves and for the people. This radical idea altered the totality of human history and put us on a path to self-governance.

Now in 2020, Mr. Trump’s folks have radically changed the national political landscape for the worse. Yet even though there are over 400 lawsuits already filed regarding the election results, and even though the Texas Supreme Court just tossed out a Trump effort to get 117,000 ballots in heavily-Democratic Harris County rejected because — get this — they say that letting people drive their cars up to ballot drop-off boxes is not in the Constitution; even though we are seeing profoundly dishonorable behavior, I remain optimistic about America’s future, electorally and beyond. Why? A bit of history may help…

In perhaps the dirtiest presidential race ever, the voters in 1800 selected Thomas Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr in the Electoral College, sort of. As this was before the 12th Amendment, the person who got the most EC votes became president and the person who got the 2nd most became the VP. And in the EC that year, Jefferson and Burr were tied. Burr, a man whom Hamilton described as “being for or against nothing but suits his interests and ambitions” (sound familiar?), tried to eek out a win in the EC over the clear choice of the people, Jefferson. Spoiler: Jefferson prevailed.

Back in 1876, Democrat Samuel Tilden got more popular votes and actually got more votes in the Electoral College than his opponent Rutherford B. Hayes. But Tilden was a single EC vote shy of winning, and thus the election was tossed to a commission and, well, it was quite a mess and a good bit of dishonesty, and the guy who got the most votes was denied the win.

Why am I telling you all this? (Ed: yes, why?). Simply put, the 2020 nightmare election is not so much an aberration as it is yet another example of how screwed up elections can be. The Electoral College was envisioned by the Founders as a brake on the actions the “regular” people might take if they chose someone who was unqualified for the White House. Hamilton famously wrote in Federalist Paper 68 that “Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.” More simply put, Hamilton argued the EC would reject candidates that are unqualified (cough…Trump…cough) and dishonest (cough…double-Trump…cough). We can see that Hamilton’s vision was not exactly 20/20, especially for 2020.

So, what is the point of all this? First, we have a long history of contentious and awkward presidential elections, and if we stick with the current Electoral College system, we’ll always have these problems. So secondly, I urge you to vote in favor of Prop 113, which (if adopted by enough states) would guarantee the person who gets the most votes gets to be president. That is, well, simply fair and just, and is the right thing to do.

So, happy Election Day. We should have a national holiday every election day, but until we do, please do remember to vote today, even if it means you have to take your mail-in ballot to a drop box and wait in line. We in Colorado have a great history of quality elections and let’s hope this one is yet another example of Colorado leading the way.