#2020Vote for President — fair elections start now!
Understanding the Electoral College history.
From The Atlantic — It is “desirable,” Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 68, “that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of” president. But is “equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station.” These “men”—the electors––would be “most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.” And because of their discernment—because they possessed wisdom that the people as a whole might not—“the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
As Michael Signer explains, the framers were particularly afraid of the people choosing a demagogue. The electors, Hamilton believed, would prevent someone with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” from becoming president. And they would combat “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.”
The patriarchy vs the common citizen
The framers of the Electoral College were aristocratic men, some landholders, slaveholders, or educated elite — or all three. These founding fathers, the patriarchy, had no intention of letting anyone unlike themselves from swaying the choice of president – no people of color, no women, no man who didn’t have a stake in the status quo. They wanted to make sure “their” man got elected and there would be no interference from foreign powers to take over our “new” country.
Interesting that they don’t mention that they themselves were a foreign power that wrested this land from Native Americans. Ahem. I digress.
Today the disparity is still enforced
The electors who make up the voters in the Electoral College are not independent. They’re chosen for their party loyalty by party conventions or party leaders. They do not act on behalf of the 99% but as directed by the 1%. Thus, Americans do not actually get to elect the President. We, the voters, are not children to be dominated. We are active members of our society and have the responsibility to elect men and women who represent our values, who are not bought and paid for by greed.
EC choices over the Popular Vote
In addition to 2016, there have been four other times in American history – 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000 – when the candidate who won the Electoral College lost the national popular vote. Each time, a Democratic presidential candidate lost the election due to this system.
National Popular Vote Movement to overthrow Electoral College
The National Conference of State Legislatures, 2017 reports: “The National Popular Vote (NPV) movement emerged in late 2006 and began to gain some steam in 2007. NPV seeks to ensure that the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes nationwide is elected president. When a state passes legislation to join the National Popular Vote Compact, it pledges that all of that state’s electoral votes will be given to whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote nationwide. These bills will take effect only when states with a majority of the electoral votes have passed similar legislation. States with electoral votes totaling 270 of the 538 electoral votes would have to pass NPV bills before the compact kicks in and any state’s bill could take effect. Currently, 165 electoral votes are pledged to the compact.”
Of the 270 electoral votes needed to enact the National Popular Vote Compact, 165 are already pledged by: California, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
105 Electoral Votes to go
If your state isn’t on this list, time to get busy and make it happen.
Perhaps, amending the EC would be better.
Robert Schlesinger wrote the following opinion for the US News — Democratize U.S. Democracy — The Electoral College is a problem in American democracy. Here’s how to fix it.
“Fortunately, there’s an innovative alternative that preserves the federal system while greatly diminishing the prospect of another second-place president. Instead of scrapping the Electoral College, augment it, adding 102 electors to be awarded to the winner of the national popular vote. Why 102? Two electoral votes for each state and the District of Columbia, acting as a balance and a match for the two electors each currently gets, as a nod to federalism, for each of its senators; the electoral bonus would serve as a reflection that we’re not simply a collection of states but that it was we the people who chose to form a more perfect union and that over time the presidency has become the one fully national office in ways that the founders didn’t conceive. Still, fully 84 percent of electoral votes would be won on a state-by-state basis, ensuring the candidates would still have to pile up state victories to achieve the presidency.”
Eliminate or Amend — Time to Change
The time has come to claim the government for and by the people. The only way to change the Electoral College’s constriction on our choice of government is to push for the amendment or push through the National Popular Vote Compact by working to make sure states initiate, or re-initiate, and pass the NPV bill.
Make the Change Happen
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