Electoral College: Does The Left Really Care About The Minority?
Once again, opponents of the Electoral College are calling for its abolition, suggesting that it be replaced with a purely democratic election process. When Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was asked about abolishing the Electoral College she responded, “I’m open to the discussion. There’s no question the popular vote has been diminished in terms of making the final decision of who becomes president.” This idea is entirely antithetical to the purpose of our government and directly undermines the importance of states to our electoral process.
The Founding Fathers were terrified of majority rule and they understood how oppressive it could be, considering they had lived through such an experience (they had just fought the Revolutionary War because they were tired of living under tyrannical British rule). The Founders believed that the little guy was just as important as the big guy, and they established a system of government that protected the minority against the potential abuses of the majority. Today, we see this in every aspect of our style of government.
Take Congress, for example. The House of Representatives benefits the larger states and requires only a majority of its members to vote in favor of legislation for it to pass. However, the Senate benefits the minority. It has equal representation from each state, meaning that California has the same amount of senators as South Carolina.
The same goes for the relationship between the federal government and the states. The Tenth Amendment specifically reserves all powers to the states that are not delegated to the federal government. These same principles apply to the Electoral College as well. The electoral system the Founding Fathers put into place was explicitly designed so that every state would be heard. States are supposed to be the most important part of our country.
In 1977, a man by the name of Michael Diamond wrote a pamphlet for the American Enterprise Institute called, “The Electoral College and the American Idea of Democracy.” In the pamphlet, he explained that the electoral college is actually democratic, just in a different way than most people think. He writes, “In fact, presidential elections are already just about as democratic they can be. We already have one-man, one-vote - but in the states. Elections are as freely and democratically contested as elections can be - but in the states.”
The Electoral College places the states at the center of the presidential election process, right where it should be. But once again, many on the left are bringing up the idea of abolishing it, and that’s for two reasons.
First, leftists are angry. They are angry because they lost the recent presidential election and need something to blame, so they blame the Electoral College. They are angry because they view Donald Trump both as a wicked human being and an illegitimate president. Furthermore, they see the Electoral College as a symbol of oppression. An old system and an old way of thinking that intends to silence those who have been discriminated against in the past. Yet, their solution is to silence and oppress those with whom they disagree.
Fundamentally, the left believes that instituting a purely democratic election system would allow them to silence opposing views, as they believe their ideas to be more popular with the majority of American people.
The second reason the Left wants to abolish the Electoral College is that it prevents them from instituting their progressive vision of government. The Electoral College is necessary because the Constitution is necessary. The Electoral College shows us that all fifty states, and the individuals in them, are important and valuable.
Let’s say the electoral college is abolished and a purely democratic system, such as “one person, one vote” is put into place. How would that work? The answer is that cities like New York and Chicago and states like Texas, California, and Florida would be the places where all the candidates campaigned. The idea that candidates would start traveling to places like Mississippi or Kansas (as Elizabeth Warren claimed in her CNN town hall) is entirely untrue.
Abolishing the Electoral College would place power in the hands of the most populated areas of the country, and thus, in the hands of a few. Conservatives must defend the Electoral College because it is an example of the beauty of our government and our dedication to equal representation. If those wanting to abolish the Electoral College succeed in doing so, it will be the first step towards implementing a tyrannical, majoritarian, and progressive rule.
The institutions the Founders created are being bombarded with plans to create a new governmental system to do away with the values this country holds dear, and the traditions that have made our country so great. We all must realize these dangers and act as a bulwark against those who want to uproot everything this country has built. One of America’s founding values is that of equal representation, and the Electoral College is a pure demonstration of that.