Electoral College Protects Us From Democracy

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The election of the President and Vice President is not accomplished by direct election. The electors were originally appointed by the States. The number of electors is determined by the number of Representatives and Senators the State is entitled in Congress. This method of indirect election is also known as The Electoral College, which was designed in this manner specifically to protect the United States against the excesses of democracy.

After the 2000 election, where the winner of the popular vote was denied the presidency because he did not win the fight for electors, questions regarding the Electoral College arose. It was only the fourth time in history such an event occurred. To find precedents resembling the 2000 election one has to go back to the 19th century, to the elections of 1888, 1876, and 1824. Those were the only elections in American history prior to the election in 2000 where a winner in the popular vote was denied the presidency through the Electoral College system.

Recently, there has been a number of officials promising to introduce legislation to abolish the Electoral College, claiming that is no longer serves a good purpose in modern politics. The idea of these folks that oppose the Electoral College is to simply allow the popular vote of the American people be followed every four years when we elect our president.

A number of Americans have voiced their agreement with this opinion, arguing that the man receiving the most votes should win. An indirect election such as the Electoral College, argue these folks, is simply unfair and undemocratic. In other words, they believe the American political system should operate as a direct democracy.

The Founding Fathers purposely did not make this country a democracy. The United States is a Republic, equipped with checks and balances at all levels of government, including the voting process. Democracies were proven, according to the founders, to be failures.

John Adams was quoted to say, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

Thomas Jefferson said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

The founders were not the only ones to recognize that a democracy opposed what they were trying to accomplish.

Karl Marx once said, “Democracy is the road to socialism.”

Karl Marx, the father of communism, understood that the implementation of a democracy is a necessary step in the process of destroying our Constitutional Republic. Once the people are fooled to believe that they can receive gifts from the treasury rather than as individuals achieve their livelihood, they will continually vote in the people who ensure the entitlements continue to flow. Eventually, this mindset becomes the majority. This group, which has changed over time from an involved and informed electorate to a populace that lacks the understanding of the principles of liberty and can easily be manipulated into believing that sacrificing individual liberty in exchange for social justice and security is a price that we must be willing to pay, then is prime to vote into power a tyranny. Eliminating the Electoral College would make it easier for these members of our society to vote into office those that promise more entitlements.

Once the majority of the voters in a Democracy become the recipients of benefits from the Federal Government, the government achieves unchecked power, and may then violate the property rights of the productive members of society in order to provide benefits to the non-productive members of society. This is best characterized in the "tax the rich" scheme we are now seeing emerge as the rally cry by the current administration.

The founders were aware of this danger, which is why they established our system of government, and the electoral college, in that manner they did. A true democracy becomes “mob rule,” and the principles of liberty become a target for elimination.

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” -- Thomas Jefferson

In order to preserve our Constitutional Republic it was imperative for the vote of the people to be indirect, except when it came to voting for their representatives in the House of Representatives. The Founding Fathers divided power as much as possible, including the power of the vote.

Originally the State Legislatures appointed the electors that cast their votes in the Presidential Election. That changed in 1824 when all but six states decided to have the parties appoint the electors, and for the electors to vote in line with the popular vote.

Originally the U.S. Senators were appointed by the State Legislatures, which ensured the voice of the States was present in the federal government. That changed in 1913 with the 17th Amendment, which transferred the vote for the U.S. Senators to the popular vote.

The Founding Fathers divided the voting power as they did partially because if the power to vote for president, the House, and the Senate was all given to the people, and if the people were fooled by some political ideology that wished to destroy the republic by fundamentally changing the American System, a tyranny could be easily voted into control of all parts of the government without any checks whatsoever. When the majority of voters are uninformed in such a manner, tyranny is inevitable.

Winston Churchill understood the dangers of trusting an uninformed electorate with the capacity to govern. He was quoted as saying,
“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”

The elimination of the Electoral College would take away the voice of the smaller states, give the election of the President to the seven largest metropolitan centers in the United States, and lead America even closer to becoming a democracy.

Democracy is a transitional governmental system that ultimately leads to tyranny. This was true in the days of the French Revolution no less than it is true today.

While democracy lasts it becomes more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy…Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide. -- John Adams

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner” -- James Bovard

Our country is not a democracy. Our nation was founded as a constitutionally limited republic. The indirect election of the President through the Electoral College reflects that truth, and the Electoral College is one of the last vestiges of the system of checks and balances as they apply to the voters.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary