The Popular Vote as a Psychological Coping Mechanism
In 1931, a book was published in German under the title "100 Authors Against Einstein", attempting to refute the Theory of Relativity. By some accounts, when Einstein was confronted with this book, he is reported to have said something along the lines of:
Why a hundred? If I were wrong, one would have been enough."
I have no idea if this is for real. Still, though, it's pretty good, right?
To be clear, Einstein was talking about physics, not politics or philosophy, but even in the social sciences I find myself sympathetic to the spirit of this quote, fake or not, especially when faced with people who harp on an idea like the popular vote.