Populism or Fix?
In one of my Constitutional history courses I remember the Professor asking us what one thing in the Constitution most threatened freedom and democracy. Most picked the various references to slavery, some the 10th Amendment; etc. He then astounded us all by naming the Electoral College!
And then he proceeded to present the followng argument. This was in 1974.
This is why those who ignore history are fated to repeat mistakes over and over again. The electoral college was part of a compromise to entice the slave states to join the union; part of the 3/5 compromise. Because the south had fewer people, even in 1789, the states were reluctant to join a union that already was showing signs of not agreeing with slavery. So a deal was struck to count each owned slave as 3/5 of a man for representative purposes AND for electoral college purposes. The result? The south dominated the Presidency really until the Civil War. One main reason for the Civil War is not just that Lincoln was anti-slavery but he was from the NORTH!
The truth is one man (women couldn't vote then) one vote was NEVER part of our Constitution for slavery's benefit. And that slavery system was the most brutal in human history!
This "compromise" of dubuous worth, was smashed with the Civil War. But the electoral college, that should have been overturned by the 13th Amendment, was left in (probably to give something to the south). This was the mistake that could imperil us all!
The result today is an critical imbalance between smaller populated states and larger populated states. The winner take all aspect is critical here, along with the minimum electors for example for Wyoming, whose electors stand for a few people while in California an elector stands for thousands. So once again we have elected a President who did not win the "popular vote"; what other vote is there?
And this will become a norm in the future. The electoral college once again is in a sense being used by white supremacy to continue its sick hegemony in the United States.
In response to the dangers of populism the writers of the Constitution at first proposed to only allow members of state legislatures to vote for President (this method nearly was made part of the Constitution- it continues in the case of neither candidate getting a majority, the House picks the President, the Senate the Vice President...there is an anachronism for you!) , since the popular vote is too subject to populist whim: interesing since this system benefited a populist candidate!
And we are not going to get over it, because this has been planned for years by Republicans, who realized long ago that the population was getting more diverse, especially in urban states, and they do not stand a chance if it wasn't for the electoral college.
It was just reported that in California BOTH houses of the legislature have a 2/3 majority of Democrats versus a dwindling Republican minority. This massive imbalance of power is a direct result of a Republican Party who nationally is now governed by a white supremacist who is the opposite of diversity.
In a diverse state, which is the procursor of where the United States is going, the ONLY way for the white minority to prevail is to cheat democracy. If you don't think it works, look at Apartheid in South Africa, that for years continued a white small minority in power with electoral gimmicks and tricks. That resulted in decades of repression and near civil war.
Finally, the 2016 turnout was the lowest on record, which again is a product of voter suppression laws and a deliberate strategy by the Republican party to rig the thing using low turnout and target "battleground states" to get the magic 270 electoral votes.
It worked, but your candidate now has the problem of NO mandate! And we are in for it!
The gravest threat to our freedom is the electoral college!!!!! My professor was a prophet!
