At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, crowds anxiously waited outside Independence Hall to find out what kind of government had been created for America.
According to a diary entry by James McHenry, a signer of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin gave them the answer. Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Whenever you hear a politician refer to America as a “democracy,” they’re showing their ignorance of our founding. The Founding Fathers created a republic — loosely translated to mean “the public things,” or “the laws” — instead of a democracy where the majority rules. In short, our Constitution ensures a government of laws and not of men, a republic and not a democracy.
The wisdom of their creation is clear: a republic ensures everyone has a voice while a democracy allows the mob to do as it wishes. Nowhere is this clearer than when we elect the president and vice president using the Electoral College (EC).
Unfortunately, there is renewed interest in seeing the EC repealed, to be replaced by a majority rule popular vote. Over the past week, Democrat candidates for president Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris have come out in favor of getting rid of the EC.
Fortunately, eliminating the EC is impossible without amending the Constitution. Unfortunately, politicians rarely let the Constitution get in the way of advancing their self-interested agenda.
For example, while those in the national political scene spin the idea to primarily garner money and votes, a growing movement at the state level of government has been successful in creating a “work around” to the EC that could survive a court challenge.
Known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement among a group of US states and the District of Columbia would award their Electoral Votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote, regardless of who won each state.
Colorado recently joined 11 other states and the District of Columbia, bringing the number of electoral votes at stake to 181 — a mere 89 votes short of the 270 necessary to win the presidency.
While there are those who claim this is unconstitutional, the reality is there are no Constitutional provisions or federal laws requiring Electors to vote for the winner in their states.
Of course, Trump and the GOP are adding the Electoral College debate to their list of #notDemocrat reasons to support them in 2020. But an old tweet from 2012 shows Trump criticizing the Electoral College, calling it a “disaster for democracy.”
The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012
Yeah, I know, Trumpists will write this off as old news and point to his current soft support of the EC. However, he was pushing to see it repealed as recently as a year ago because the popular vote would be “easier to win.” Considering his political schizophrenia, who knows where he stands on the issue today or where he’ll stand on it tomorrow?
Amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College seems very unlikely, but the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is close to becoming a reality. Conservatives need to get involved at the state and local levels of government if they want to see it stopped.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His politically incorrect and always “right” columns are also featured on NOQReport.com.
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