Why We Should Keep the Electoral College
EXPLANATION OF WHY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS FAIR AND DEMOCRATIC
Recently the Democrats have been advocating an end to the ELECTORAL COLLEGE. Apparently a recent Presidential election didn’t go their way and they want to head off any similar problem in the next president election. If democracy continues to disappoint the Left, we will soon be hearing CNN advocating the end of voting rights altogether. With characteristic perspicacity the Washington Post calls the Electoral College an “abomination”.
That which is beyond one’s grasp, by definition, must be bad: So allow me to explain the Electoral College in simple terms for my leftist friends. It’s not sexy, but try to pay attention. It is important.
Let’s image that you live in one of those loathsome situations called a Home-Owners Association. And let’s image, for the sake of ease, that there are ten homes in that HOA. Now according to the Democrats each home should vote according to the number of persons who reside in that home.
Let’s image:
1. Home A has 1 person living in it
2. Home B has 1 person living in it
3. Home C has 1 person living in it
4. Home D has 1 person living in it
5. Home E has 1 person living in it
6. Home F has 1 person living in it
7. Home G has 1 person living in it
8. Home H has 1 person living in it
9. Home I has 1 person living in it
10. Home J has 10 persons living in it
According to Democrat reasoning Home J will control the entire homeowners association.
If the residents of Home J should strongly believe that loud music at midnight is best for partying, and that all homeowners shall electrify their homes with windmills on their roofs—your only option is to sell your home and move out of the neighborhood.
Now as a comparison to the national franchise and the Electoral College, those of us born in the United States, have no other HOA to move to. We are stuck with the crazies in Home J. Only those with dual citizenship apparently have the right to move. Indeed according to the Democrats, those living in Home J may not even have to own the property, those folk can simply be renting or passing through. In fact, felons and 16 year olds in that home may also be voting.
Now if you think this is democracy, I strongly disagree.
Democracy, properly understood, is deeply concerned with the appropriate use of the vote within proper limits. In order words, democracy doesn’t mean that your neighbor can use a plebiscite to mandate the kind of breakfast you eat or whether you plant geraniums or sunflowers in your backyard. The vote always is constrained within a proper jurisdiction. Americans don’t vote for the British Prime Minister and the Franklin High School student body doesn’t vote for the Student Body President of Eagle Rock High School. I am ashamed I should need to explain this, but one of the consistent elements of left wing thinking, is, well, that there isn’t much thinking going on…
The underlying structure of the United States is a Union comprised of States. We are not one great big electorate. We are 51 electorates. The reason we have states is because people have natural differences: different interests, preferences and outlooks about things. States, even today, produce distinctive types of people. Texans are not New Yorkers who are not like Californians who are not Nebraskans. Different temperaments. Different concerns. And therefore those communities are entitled collectively to express their interests and preferences in a unique body politic. That’s what a State is. And the United States has 50 of them and an enclave called DC–which, BTW, is not like any other state because its interests are entirely big government.
You see, the Electoral College is not just a good idea, but a necessary element of democracy properly understood. It is a prudential mechanism to prevent any single interest or area of the country from controlling the entire political apparatus. Everything is not up to vote— and that which is—must be constrained by considerations of venue and subject and constituencies. These limits are fundamental to the idea of democracy. John is not entitled by the spirit of democracy to vote on when Jack shall take a bath. That is outside the proper limits of democracy. As a voter in Citrus Heights California, I have no business telling people how to live in Toad Suck, Arkansas. There are natural limits to the power of the plebiscite, and the Electoral College is a wise and prudential restraint upon the abuse of the democratic franchise.
As usual the Democrats are wrong. But, then again, that’s what makes them Democrats.
