In Darkest America & The Way Out: The Electoral College

In recent days I have been reading a lot of arguments for, and against, the Electoral College system that we use to elect the President (& Vice-President) of the United States.

Here is my "view from the stands":

The #GodDamnedFascist (#MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain) who LOST THE POPULAR VOTE had railed against the Electoral College in 2012 when he believed (wrongly, as usual) that President Obama would win the Electoral College votes but lose the popular vote "by a lot" - which he deleted when he discovered that President Obama won the popular vote, ahem, "by a lot". About 5 million more votes than were cast for Mitt Romney, actually. OOOPS!

Of course now that he has clearly LOST THE POPULAR VOTE by almost 2 million votes but won the requisite electoral votes to win the presidency he thinks the Electoral College is "genius". Well, actually yes it is, but not for the reason that the #GodDamnedFascist seems to think. He said in a recent tweet:

"The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!"

The reality is not that the Electoral College allows smaller states the same representation as larger states. That would be the U.S. Senate, also called “the world’s greatest deliberative body”, where all states have equal representation and Senators sit for 6 year terms – the so-called "cooling saucer of Democracy". No, the real genius of the Electoral College is that it was specifically designed to keep a populist sociopath like Drumpf from ever achieving the most powerful elected office, literally, in the free world.

In Federalist 68, Alexander Hamilton clearly defines the explicit purpose and intent of the Electoral College system to elect the "Chief Magistrate" of the United States of America.

"It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture."

Here Hamilton says, "...a sense of the people" should be a factor in the choice of President but not that the general populous should have the deciding voice. In fact in the following passage, Hamilton stipulates precisely the opposite view - the "immediate election" be made by a relatively small body of 'electors'.

"It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations."

The "complicated investigations", as Hamilton explains, would be into the direct fitness, temperment, knowledge, experience, judgement and aptitude for anyone "...who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States"

"It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States. But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief."

As if to anticipate the potential rise of a Drumpf-like figure in American politics, Hamilton writes:

"Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter [sic], but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?"

Making the Presidential election a 'moral certainty' that a corrupt, fascist, sociopath like “Herr UberCheeto”, as my son calls that GOD DAMNED FASCIST, never gets within a thousand yards of the Presidency was the true genius of the Electoral College:

"The process of election affords a moral certainty, that 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. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States."

When the Electoral College meets on December 19th to cast their votes that will actually decide who will be the 45th President of the United States they have a clear obligation to act as the buffer that the founding fathers had in mind for the Electoral College.

They have a clear cut path to vote for the winner of the popular vote and respect the actual will of the majority of Americans and give the Presidency to Hillary Clinton - she did win by almost 2 million votes - maybe more by the time the west coast votes are all counted - She may not be the most 'transparent' of political figures in some sense, but then she and her husband have been the target of the Republicans and their neoconservative smear machine lead by then Speaker of the House Newton Leroy 'Newt' Gingrich (which grew into what is now sometimes known as the "alt-right") for some 25 years so there could be a little bit of simple human self-preservation in that mentality. But that not withstanding, if she turns out to be a disaster (possible, but not likely) we could boot her out in 2020. 

The point I am driving at here is that this is exactly and expressly what the founders designed the Electoral College system for. If they are not going to perform the function for which they were constructed and act as that buffer between the populist sentiment of the masses and the best interest of the Republic, then they should be disbanded and the Constitution amended to elect the President by simple popular vote.

As Drumpf tweeted on Nov. 7, 2012:

"More votes equals [sic] a loss...revolution!" - 

Although that tweet was deleted shortly thereafter, there are several that remain on his Twitter feed.

"This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!" (11/6/2012)

"The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy." (11/6/2012)

If the Electoral College merely rubber stamps this election they are useless fools and the system must be abolished!