When I was a young man, I had simplistic answers to almost every problem. I was also outspoken in presenting my solutions to others.
One day, the Vice President of the firm for which I was employed, and a man whom I greatly respected, invited me to his office. Amongst other things he said, “Bill . . . I very much appreciate your creativity and desire to improve things. But, before you tear down a fence, be sure you fully understand why it was put up in the first place.”
While I thought this was a cute way of presenting and remembering his sensible advice, its wisdom really did not register with full impact until I was a lot older and responsible for leading an organization. I found myself confronting guys who wanted to revolutionize “things” without a clear understanding of why “things” were the way they were. I found myself saying, “Son . . . before you tear down a fence . . . “
For example, the current presidential election process will cause some people to demean the Electoral College and the process we use to elect a president. It was created by the Founding Fathers to provide greater voting balance between heavily populated areas and sparsely populated areas of our country. In other words, it provides some balance between large states and small states in the selection of the President. Every State in America’s Republic has at least three Electoral votes . . . one for each Senator, plus one for each member of the House of Representatives.
Over the years, I’ve observed a lot of inexperienced and/or uninformed commentators and voters taking a apparently thoughtless position on this issue. Many think we should do away with the Electoral College and replace it with direct elections. They obviously do not appreciate the protection the Electoral Fence provides to small and less influential states.
