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chapter one Introduction John F. Kennedy’s Vision of Federalism Direct election would break down the federal system under which most states entered the union, which provides a system of checks and balances to insure that no area or group shall obtain too much power. —John F. Kennedy It is a rare presidential election that does not trigger demands by the los- ing party to abolish the Electoral College, particularly when the loser in the Electoral College wins the hypothetical popular vote as calculated by various media outlets. Since 1789, this has happened in 4 out of 56 presi- dential elections—in 1888, 1960,1 2000, and 2016. After the 1960 election, for example, when the New York Times and the Congressional Quarterly announced that Richard Nixon had won the popular vote despite losing in the Electoral College to John F. Kennedy,2 it was out- raged Republicans who felt cheated by the Electoral College and demanded the abolition of it. In 2016, it was outraged Democrats who felt that they had been so cheated. Since the 1789 election of George Washington by the Electoral College, there have been between 500 and 700 serious proposals to abolish the Electoral College—depending on how one defines “serious.”3 (In 1808, U.S. senator James Hillhouse proposed that retiring senators choose a president by drawing colored balls from a box.)