Reportedly, Donald J. Trump was selected to serve as 47th President of the United States by the voting members of the Electoral College on January 6, 2025.
Mr. Trump tallied 312 votes, against 226 cast for Kamala Harris.
Technically, one could make the claim that only 312 people voted for Donald Trump, but in reality those Electoral College voters were bound by the actions of 155,512,532 individual voters — give or take — during the autumn of 2024. (I say “give or take” because we know that voting irregularities sometimes take place, as careful as we might try to be. Dead people voting, for example.)
Kamala Harris had garnered about 48 percent of the popular vote — 74,999,166 — but received only 42 percent of the Electoral College votes.
Mr. Trump’s tally of 77,284,118 popular votes was the highest number won by any presidential candidate in a U.S. election, except for the 81,284,666 votes won by Joe Biden in 2020.
A quote by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appears occasionally in social media posts:
Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried…
As we can determine by the phrase, “it has been said…” Churchill did not originate this idea himself. Apparently, someone previously said it, but we don’t know who that previous person might have been.
We don’t always get the context of Mr. Churchill’s 1947 comment, however, during a contentious debate related to conflicts between the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Here’s a more complete version.
“Democracy is not a caucus, obtaining a fixed term of office by promises, and then doing what it likes with the people. We hold that there ought to be a constant relationship between the rulers and the people. ‘Government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ still remains the sovereign definition of democracy…
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time; but there is the broad feeling in our country that the people should rule, continuously rule, and that public opinion, expressed by all constitutional means, should shape, guide, and control the actions of Ministers who are their servants and not their masters.”
Mr. Churchill proposes, here, an interesting idea: that (at least in Great Britain) the elected representatives are “servants” of the people, rather than their “masters”, and that the proper role of elected representatives is to understand and fulfill the public will.
On April 21, Pope Francis, the elected leader of the Roman Catholic Church, passed away at age 88, following weeks of respiratory illness, and on May 7, 133 Catholic cardinals from around the globe gathered at the Vatican to elect a new Pope. The chosen candidate in such elections must win a 2/3 majority. The Church recognizes 252 cardinals, but only those under the age of 80 took part in the conclave. Of the 133 cardinals that voted, Pope Francis had appointed 108, but that didn’t necessarily mean the cardinals would opt for someone cast in his mold.
On May 8, a cardinal named Robert Francis Prevost, originally born in Chicago but who spent much of his life serving in Latin America, was elected. He took the papal name Leo XIV.
From the Apostolic Age until 1059, the Pope, like other bishops, was chosen by the consensus of the clergy and laity. But in 1059, the College of Cardinals was designated the sole body of electors… and in 1970, Pope Paul VI limited the electors to cardinals under 80 years of age. (That gives me seven years to become a Catholic bishop and then get appointed as a cardinal, if I want a chance to vote for the next Pope. Probably not going to happen.)
A couple of quotes from Pope Leo’s first meeting with the College of Cardinals:
Beginning with Saint Peter and up to myself, his unworthy Successor, the Pope has been a humble servant of God and of his brothers and sisters, and nothing more than this. It has been clearly seen in the example of so many of my Predecessors, and most recently by Pope Francis himself, with his example of complete dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life, his abandonment to God throughout his ministry and his serene trust at the moment of his return to the Father’s house. Let us take up this precious legacy and continue on the journey, inspired by the same hope that is born of faith…
Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic ‘Encyclical Rerum Novarum’ addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.
I was not raised in the Catholic Church. In fact, I understand that my grandfather — who died before I was born — believed the Catholic Church to be a force of evil. My own parents felt differently, and taught me to view all religions as, essentially, seeking the same spiritual truth and the same universal brotherhood, in defense of human dignity and justice.
Although I voted in the 2024 Presidential election and cast my ballot — along with 56 percent of Colorado voters — for Kamala Harris, I was not asked to vote for the new Pope.
Nevertheless, I can find some solace in knowing that, according to his initial public addresses, Pope Leo XIV is opposed to wars and genocide, and embraces the quest for universal dignity and justice, especially for immigrants and the poor.
Because we sure aren’t seeing much of that philosophy coming from the current White House.