American government makes a lot more sense if you look at it from the point of view of how it was actually designed to function. The Electoral College, for example, mystifies many Americans, who can recite from memory the details of 20 seasons of The Bachelor but who cannot be bothered to understand the basics of how their government is meant to function. The Founders feared mob rule and the domination of factions, and so they made the presidency a prize not for one big national mob but for 50 competing mobs, each with its own preferences and priorities. That is why we do not have direct election of presidents and why the “popular vote” that Bouie writes about is irrelevant.