The US Electoral College should die. The process through which U.S. Presidents are elected is convoluted, undemocratic and has little, if anything, to do with the will of the people. It is difficult to imagine how anyone, with any sense of equity, fairness, logic, or indeed any understanding of democracy itself, could actually design such a process. So why does it still exist?
First of all, the Electoral College, the system which elects the president, wasn’t designed to be fair, equitable or democratic. It was designed to protect the interests of slave-owning Southern Governors, and maintain their control over the American electoral process.
Second, it has evolved as a process that can be outrageously manipulated by ruling parties through gerrymandering electoral districts to produce the results they want, so why would they want to change it?
Third, the process has very little, if anything, to do with the will or choice of the American people.
And, fourth, among many other misrepresentations of American democracy, it has recently encouraged the passage of laws in many states that will allow political appointments to override any election result. Such abuses of democracy include the selection of the electors who elect the President, state legislature positions, state governors, and even U.S. Congressional representatives. The Electoral College system is a vehicle of autocracy, not democracy, and it could well lead to dictatorship in the very near future.
I repeat, the US Electoral College should die.
It’s bad enough that democracy itself can throw up autocrats and dictators at times, but to endorse a system that actually encourages the sidelining of democratic elections should be tantamount to treason. It is also self-destructive for a country that believes it invented democracy, and that perpetuates that myth in its self-promotion throughout the world. The fact that the Electoral College system still exists is shameful, hypocritical, absolutely stupid and myopic, even when viewed purely from the country’s own self-interest point of view.
The Electoral College was created by the first slave-owning governors of the southern U.S. states. At that time, the population of the North was growing far more rapidly than that of the South, and they realized their influence was declining if they didn’t “fix” the “One Man, One Vote” concept of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
I have to add here that the original definition of “One man, one vote” was not actually “One man, one vote. It was “One landowner, one vote”.
The “Fix” the Southern governors came up with was the most amazingly-biased and audacious idea.
I have to admit here that I have never understood how the Northern States let them get away with this.
They authorized, and passed into law, the condition that each slave could be counted as two-thirds of a vote; the slaves, of course, had no right whatsoever to actually vote. Those “slave” votes were to be used by their owners, which meant the owners/governors had multiple votes. The “Fix” worked. The first five presidents of the U.S. were all from the south. Is it any wonder that I am saying the US Electoral College should die?
The current system for electing a U.S. President still uses the Electoral College system, even though the slave element is gone. Each state selects (by appointment or elections – about half and half) electors who vote for the President in the Electoral College. Very little, as I said, to do with the will of the people.
The process is totally unethical, corrupt and most certainly undemocratic. In addition, why is this process determined by the states, through their electors, when the presidency is a national position?
National public positions should be determined by all eligible U.S. voters, and the states should have nothing to do with the management of that process. The states should manage the processes that elect state officials, but not national officials. That responsibility should lie with the Federal Government, which should be charged with making the process is as equitable, and as standardized as possible, across the whole country.
The first step on my election process “Course Correction” program will be a Constitutional amendment abolishing the undemocratic, slave-based origin, archaic and anachronistic anomaly called the Electoral College System. This will be followed by the establishment of a presidential election process, managed by the Federal Government, which institutionalizes the “One man, One Vote” concept that the U.S. always espouses as a fundamental part of its governance system. I should add that although the Constitution doesn’t mention the Electoral College, it will take a constitutional amendment to abolish it. Whatever it takes, the US Electoral College should die, quickly.
