RECLAIMING DEMOCRACY: THE LONG WAY HOME.
BURY
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
By
Jack Random
How the
Electoral College could have survived for as long as it has is beyond the
comprehension of any reasonable person.
All defenses rest upon the fundamental belief that the people cannot be
trusted to choose their own leaders.
You can believe in aristocracy and support the Electoral College. You can believe in monarchy or
autocracy or outright dictatorship and support this antiquated system. But you cannot believe in the republic
– a representative form of democracy – and still support the Electoral
College.
The same
people who defend the filibuster as a means to protect the rights of the
minority invariably argue that the Electoral College is essential to protect
the interests of the smaller states.
Don’t be fooled for a fraction of a microsecond. The defenders of the Electoral College
have no more interest in the people of West Virginia than they do the people of
Massachusetts. They only want to
game the system and impose the power of the elite over the will of the
people.
The defenders
of the rich and privileged class tell us that without the Electoral College
presidential candidates would ignore the so-called “flyover” states but they
are entirely unmoved by the fact that every four years for as long as I can
remember presidential candidates have ignored the forty million voters of my
home state in California and the twenty million voters of New York in the
general election. California and
New York have been ignored in the primary season as well – although a change in
the primary schedule may end that in the current campaign at least for
California. Apparently it is fine
that our votes and interests are dismissed as irrelevant as long as Ohio and
New Hampshire have their say.
It is also the
case that because of the Electoral College system the entire South with the
exception of Florida is ignored in the general election. Only the Republicans set foot in
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas or Louisiana during the
primaries. Once the general
election begins the South ceases to exist.
While it is
true that larger states that are not considered battlegrounds might get more
attention with a popular vote for president, it is not true that the smaller
states would be ignored. In a free
and fair election between qualified nominees, candidates will search everywhere
to boost their vote totals. For
the first time since the Civil Rights movement, Democrats will venture below
the Mason-Dixon line. For the
first time since Reagan, both Republicans and Democrats will visit California
for more than corporate fundraisers.
Has it
occurred to Democrats that the reason the South consistently and overwhelmingly
votes Republican is that Democrats don’t seem to care? They don’t show up. They don’t campaign. They let the local candidates take care
of themselves. If you never hear
progressive opinions, how likely are you to vote for progressive
candidates?
The South is
changing both demographically and politically. It’s changing faster than anyone from outside the region
imagines. Just as Californians are
tired of their votes having no impact on presidential races, Southerners must
feel the same way. Both are
neglected because of the winner-take-all Electoral College system. Why vote when the outcome has already
been etched in bronze?
On the same
line, has it occurred to Republicans that they need to show up in Democratic
states? There are conservatives in
California, Washington, Massachusetts and New York. Republicans have won elections in the blue states in the
past but no one will vote for candidates that don’t bother to show up and state
their case.
I have never
heard a citizen of Montana proclaim that his or her vote should count fifty or
sixty times more than a Californian’s vote but that is exactly what the
Electoral College system does. It
magnifies the votes of small states while shrinking the importance of large
state votes to the extent that a post-Reagan California voter can rightfully
state that his or her vote has never counted in a presidential election.
In fact, in
the last election as well as the next, if you do not live in Pennsylvania,
Michigan, Wisconsin or Florida, your vote was little more than an intellectual
exercise in civic duty. Oh, it may
have counted for state and local elections but it did not and will not count
for the presidency. [1]
The Electoral
College was created at a time when voting in a national election was a
cumbersome and time-consuming process.
Its primary purpose was to act as a shield against the common,
uneducated masses. If the people
made a terrible mistake by voting for an English or French monarch’s proxy, for
example, an assembly of electors could correct the error. The founders never anticipated that
their twisted system would enable a proxy of the Russian government to become
the leader of the free world.
Like our
current president, the founders were not entirely persuaded that representative
democracy was a viable system. They
were uncertain their experiment would survive the ages. They were obsessed with erecting
barriers to the naked will of the uneducated mob. Remember that ordinary working people were not allowed to
vote in the early years of the republic.
Let alone women and people of color, only the landed gentry were allowed
to participate in choosing a president.
Recall that slaves were accounted for as 3/5ths of a vote belonging to
their masters.
After two and
a half centuries it is past time to commit to democracy. A representative democracy with an
educated populace is a viable system of government. It is superior to every other type of government and it is
time that we acknowledge its viability.
It is time for those aristocratic defenders of the Electoral College to
step aside and allow us to begin the work of rebuilding our democratic
institutions. It is time to
abolish the Electoral College by any means. Never again should a minority of voters elect a president of
the United States of America.
There are at
least two ways to end the Electoral College. One is to pass a constitutional amendment replacing the
twelfth amendment with a simple majority vote of the electorate. The second is a process currently under
way. It is called the National
Popular Vote Interstate Compact and it involves gathering the support of enough
states to capture 270 electoral votes – the number needed to elect a president.
[2]
At present it
has been enacted in fifteen states and the District of Columbia representing
196 electoral votes. The campaign
should go on. At present mostly
Democratic leaning states predominantly from the east and west have joined the
compact. The case has not been
made effectively enough in the South or the Midwest. I believe the people of Missouri and Kansas, Nevada and
Georgia can be persuaded that a direct election of the president and vice
president is in all of our interests.
It will force politicians and presidents to consider the needs of all
Americans. It will end the era of
battleground states where presidential candidates spend all their time in the
handful of states that will decide the winner of the Electoral College.
Moreover, it
is the right thing to do. If you
believe in democracy, it is absolutely the right thing to do.
Success of the
National Popular Vote compact would be a great step forward. It would stop the Electoral College in
its tracks. However, it would not
bury it. It would leave the future
of American democracy on weak grounds.
The defenders of the Electoral College would campaign hard, spending
unlimited amounts of corporate money, to overturn the compact in the critical
states. To kill and bury the
college for good we will need a constitutional amendment.
Amending the
constitution is a long and arduous process. It must be passed by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate
and the House. The proposed
amendment must then be ratified by three-fourths of the states. The process is extremely difficult for
a reason. The constitution should
not be altered on a whim or subjected to the passions of the day. An amendment to the constitution must
be simple and fundamental to the American system of government. Amendments for the right to vote and a
direct election of the president are exactly that: Straightforward and fundamental.
To paraphrase
Tom Paine: Democracy comes at a
high price. “What we obtain too
cheap, we esteem too lightly.” [3]
Our
politicians have become accustomed to gaming the system. Every four years they play variations
on the same game. Every four years
candidates concoct bizarre formulas for securing a winning total of
electors. Every four years
candidates pledge allegiance to farm subsidies and bio-fuels because Iowa and
Ohio come early in the primary season.
When is the last time the candidates came through on their promises to
the “flyover” states? How
often do presidents come to Ohio or New Hampshire when the campaign is
over?
We need a
contingent of powerful advocates, including presidential candidates, who are
fully committed to democracy and able to present the case for abolishing the
Electoral College. When that
happens the college will finally fall and the entire nation will celebrate a
rebirth of American democracy.
Jazz.
1. “The 2020 Electoral Map Could Be the
Smallest in Years.” By Dan
Balz. Washington Post, August 31,
2019.
2. National Popular Vote Interstate
Compact – Making Every Vote Count.
3. The American Crisis, Number 1. By Thomas Paine.
Jack Random
is a novelist and political commentator.
His works include Wasichu: The Killing Spirit, Pawns to Players: The
Chess Series, and the Jazzman Chronicles.
