the electoral college that the president. enormous constituencies. the original houses 65 members. the lower house of the massachusetts legislature had over 350 delegates. the u.s. congress had 65. they thought the larger the constituency of the more right to you at the leg the week from a well-educated relatively affluent members of the community and the larger the constituency, the more independent they would be for constituent influence. in a sense they were profoundly antidemocratic. they wanted to move before the democratic state constitutions in the direction of more illegal because they thought you could trust the average person in government. they thought they would reduce server property. that is why hamilton as a convention favored a lifetime tenured senate and a lifetime tenured president. that was extreme at the convention.

for delegations at one point actually voted for a lifetime tenured president because they thought property rights would be adequately protected in a more republican form of government. >> we are obviously as is often the case during presidential election years, people have questions about how we got the elect are all college. ..

the independent president was to check congress. they were going to give the president of vito and if the president was dependent on congress for reelection, the president would be wary about exercising the veto so another possibility would be direct election by the people but there were three problems like that. they didn't trust the people with that important task. one of my favorite quotes from the convention is george mason, an important delegate from virginia king that asking the people to choose the chief magistrate would be like referring the choice of colors to a blind man. they didn't trust the people so that's one problem with direct election. another problem is southern slaves wouldn't count. 30 percent of the south's population were slaves, they bought those slaves ought to count in terms of increasing the south's power in the nation and they bought if

they had direct elections, the small states would never have a president . this is inherent for poor transportation and they weren't assuming the existence of political parties so they figuredpeople in large states would just , if you came from massachusetts you'd vote for john hancock. if you'd come from pennsylvania, you'd vote for james wilson. the small states would never have a president so the electoral college allowed them to compromise their differences.one thing is you're not going to have the president picked directly by the people, you're going to have state legislators deciding how electors are chosen and they assumed the electors would exercise independent judgment. then they apportioned the electoral college in such a way that the south hadgreater weight than they would in an election and the small states had a greater opportunity to elect somebody. so the apportionment of the election colleges , plus your number of senators.virginia is by far the largest states, 12 times the population of delaware. in the house there are 12

representatives, one for delaware but in the electoral college you add your senators your house members which means there's 12 electors from virginia and two from delaware, a 4 to 1 advantage rather than attend to one advantage so the small things like that, the slave states like it because their house numbers includes a number of slaves through the 3/5 rule and there's other complications worked in there. the only way to defend the electoral college today, the mouth apportionment, the direct election no longer works that way because now we have essentially a popular election to choose delegates except for the faith a selector but in terms of mouth apportionment basically what the electoral college does is it gives voters in wyoming or times the power of voters in california so california has 55 electoral votes, wyoming has three. that's an 18 to 1 disparity but california has 70 times the population of wyoming and unless you can provide a good

account for why wyoming voters are somehow discriminated against minority, they deserve advanced power in the electoral college system there is no defense for it anymore. it gives some people inflated power in choosing the president but the senate is subject to the same objection and it's so more extreme so why hasn't the two senators from california but california has 70 times the population. that's a power play by the small states in the philadelphia convention. they tried to justify it with fancy philosophical reasons for whythe small states would be overwhelmed by the large states but it was basically a power-play that the small states were going to walk out of the convention . that was long-winded but that accomplished it. [applause] >> watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> book tv takes hundreds of author programs through the country all year long. here's a look at some of the events we are covering this week. on monday, we will be in cambridge massachusetts at

the first paris church where no one chomsky and democracy now host amy goodwin will discuss professor chomsky's latest book, requiem for the american dream. will be in raleigh north carolina at quail ridge books where edward allison's discussion on the history of business fraud in america. on thursday we're at politics and prose bookstore in washington dc where historian lynn olson will talk about how london became a safe haven for the governments of six occupied countries during world war ii. we will also be a green light bookstore in new york city where lisa peterson will share experiences teaching incarcerated youth at rikers island. on friday we are back in washington dc where was scott mccartney will talk about the cultural divide in the tech industry and on saturday, we will be at hedberg public library in janesville wisconsin for a talk by

pulitzer prize-winning reporter amy goldstein. her book janesville looks at the devastation caused by the closing of the gm plant in the town during the great recession. that's a look at some of the events book tv will be covering this week and many of these events are open to the public. look for them to air in the future on book tv on c-span2. >> you may notice people on the left, the democrats, they march in lockstep. it's amazing. a tape has surfaced in the washington post of billy bush and donald trump talking about what they thought was in private, giving their man boasts and if you remember trump famously or infamously said that when you're a star in hollywood, they let you grab their genitals.

a stupid remark but it was completely translated by the left into that's what i do rather than that's what i would like to do but i'm too civilized to do it, perhaps. i don't know trump personally but okay, this was a private conversation from 11 years previously and one republican after another was horrified. they said i can't support this candidate, this is a bridge too far. and jeb bush actually embarrassingly said i have two presses granddaughters and there's nothing donald trump could say that could ever apologize for the remark he made in private to billy bush and i'm impressed they didn't realize they were being republicans. hillary clinton, she sold off

the position of secretary of state, our national assets. made off with $1 million or whatever for herself and her husband. she lied to the fbi. she lied to the american people. she brought our highest level secrets on a private server, violated her oath of office. violated the espionage act. open our secrets to our enemies from china and north korea, iran, of course the russians who now the democrats profess to find horrific. she lied about benghazi. she lied to the mother of a fallen hero of benghazi. not one, not one democrat elected official said this is

a bridge too far. i can't support this candidate. not one. and we brought this up in discussing the communist party because that's the way the communist party was really effective in political warfare. where everybody is in lock step. and that's the way the left behaves today. political correctness is like a zipper with all lock on it over everybody's lips. you just don't say anything. you don't say to a woman you're a liar and a crook. a former first lady,secretary of state . you do it to a male, but women are a protected species. all this baloneyabout being

strong , strong women. elizabeth warren, character assassinating a decent human being spent 40 years in public life and dedicated public servant,a champion of civil rights, calling them a racist . reading a letter that was in essence repudiated by coretta scott king. violating the seventh rule. when o'connell says youcan't say that , oh, your silencing another woman.that is a double standard. that cripples conservatives. it cripples anybody opposing this nonsense. you just can't say it. it's politically incorrect, it's intellectually, you look at it as ridiculous and it's laughable but in political

practice it's very sinister. and trump is a liberating force. i have waited 30 years for somebody on the right to appear like donald trump. because coming out of the left and being used to fighting, understanding that the left sees politics as war connected by other means, that's the way they see it, that's the way they fight it. the democrats weapon is what? it's character assassination. it's name-calling, it's hate. it's a party of hate and you see it every election season and there's no limit to what they will invent to throw a republicans mess and defame them, to destroy them. as i say, it's always for me

godzillaversus bambi so i waited . and then comes the first primary debate. there is donald trump and he's got the highest percentage so he gets the first question. the guy has never been in a political debate like that and he's up against what, 12 of them. 12 of the most qualified, most experienced republican politicians and the first question out-of-the-box in front of one or ever it was, i don't remember, 30 million, 20 million, whatever it was people and making kelly says , this is the first question. you referred to women as fast slobs and pays. and he doesn't hesitate a second, he says oh, that was just rosie o'donnell. [laughter] and i said this is

a guy who's an instinctive fighter.this is somebody we want. >> watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> here's a look at books being published this week. ohio governor john kasich recalls his 2015 presidential run and shares his thoughts on america's future into paths . donnie describes 10 lessons he learned from his grandfather mahatma gandhi in the kiss of anger. caitlin jenner discusses becoming her authentic self and her memoir the secrets of my life. former u.s. navy seal robert o'neill recalls his military career and the mission that led to the death of osama bin laden in the operator. facebook chief operating officer sheryl sandberg and psychologist adam grant offer their thoughts on resilience after life-changing setbacks

in opposite to be and mark lawyer provides a history of the us special forces and their role in the world today in oppose any foe. look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the near future on book tv on c-span2. >> tonight we have mary jennings hegar with her book "shoot like a girl: one woman's dramatic fight in afghanistan and on the home front" which details her time serving in afghanistan. [applause] and her fight to eliminate the military's ground combat exclusion policy which cost female arm servicemembers from serving in combat roles.she is here in austin with her family and works as an executive coach and consultant and goes back to her all the water by