The flyover states won't get a second look without the electoral college -- with better than 50% of the US population in a few urban centers, and with that population certain of their superior views and desire to tell you how to live (i.e. they voted for the guy most of you didn't), do you REALLY want candidates to focus only on individual votes? Economics dictates that they will focus on those votes clustered together, and ignore anyone that happens to live in less densely populated areas.
America's founders detested democracy, and structured the republic to try and temper the "tyranny of the majority" that is democracy at every turn. It's evident in the electoral system, diluting the "one man, one vote" concept of democracy so as to protect isolated populations that might not otherwise matter. Its even more evidenced in the federalist system whereby the federal government's authority was to be profoundly limited, with fundamental freedoms guaranteed, so that no matter what tyranny a religious, financial or other majority might wish to force upon everyone, they would be unable to do so. I speak in the past tense, you note. Because that republic, and those limits on power no longer exist.
I love the American experiment as much as the next guy, but we should sometimes remind ourselves that we are a nation born of secession, and that Jefferson was not wrong in telling us (and King George at the time), that when the abuses of government become too numerous and too restrictive, it is our duty as free men to throw it off and form a new one.
I still think petitioning the despot to let you go is pretty dumb, but it does show that more people are awakening to what is lost and yearning for something better.
