By Andrew Holley

This Thanksgiving many family's celebrations include remembrances of what they are thankful. In this season of political turmoil, I am thankful for the wisdom of the founders of this nation.

At a time, such as this that attacks on the Electoral College is at an all-time high it is wise to review the history of how the country was intended to operate. When the original congress proposed its first amendments did you know there were 12 not 10? The missing ones were congressional pay and US House apportionment. The two largest structural changes with how the federal government has operated both came in 1910s. This was done unsurprising to our modern issues at the behest of the media of the times. With the passage of the 17th amendment States no longer elected their Federal Senators, waiving one of their last great powers as sovereign entities. Of interesting note, right now Republicans control 29 State Legislatures plus Nebraska (60 Senators). The other major change is when in the 1910s the Congress started expanding rapidly the population each House member represents. The founders would have required that each congressional district contain no more than 50,000 citizens. In 1910, each House member represented just over 100,000 people. Today that number has ballooned to 747,184. Clearly, they are no longer the direct representatives intended.

While no one can say how the next month will play out we can still take thanks in the fact that the State Legislatures still have final say of who votes for President, for now at least.

Andrew Holley is a political activist from Canyon.