Mere assertion and repetition
do not equal truth. Sound
decisions are based upon knowledge.
America began as a backwater province of the British
Empire. But, after “a long train of abuses
and usurpations,” the Colonies became “free and independent states.” And then they struggled to make the
transition from a monarchy to a republic.
The Articles of Confederation were inadequate in war,
and there was no improvement in peace. The
Constitution was written to address those shortcomings.
But, unbeknownst to some, the transition from the Articles to the
Constitution continues.
At the time of the Convention, there was no way to
reduce “the different qualifications in the different States to one uniform
rule.” (James Madison, The Federalist
Papers, No. 52) It
was an obstacle that affected options regarding a matter voted upon over thirty
times. How to choose the Executive was, said
James Wilson, “the most difficult of all on which we have to decide.” And the decision that was made
created a misunderstood, misrepresented, and misused institution.
The Electoral College has two functions. They are popular choice and national
security. And there can be no doubt about the
first, for as Madison said at the Convention, the Executive “is now to be
elected by the people” and as Alexander Hamilton later noted, “The President of
the United States would be an officer elected by the people…” (The Electoral College by
Lucius Wilmerding, Jr., 3 & 19 and Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist
Papers, No. 69 respectively) Nor
is the second a mystery.
“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, 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?” (Alexander
Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 68)
“With all the infirmities incident to a popular
election, corrected by the particular mode of conducting it, as directed under
the present system, I think we may fairly calculate,” said James Madison in the
House, “that the instances will be very rare in which an unworthy man will
receive that mark of the public confidence which is required to designate the
President of the United States.”
“The original intention” is clear, as are the dangers
when it is thwarted due to a hangover.
“The right of equal suffrage among the States is
another exceptional part of the Confederation…. Its
operation contradicts that fundamental maxim of republican government,
which requires that the sense of the majority should prevail…. It may happen that this majority of
States is a small minority of the people of America; and two thirds of the
people of America could not long be persuaded…to submit their interests to the management
and disposal of one third.” (Alexander
Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 22; emphasis added)
In 2000 and 2016, there was a
political discontinuity—a
misalignment of means and ends, a condition where a minority rules the
majority. Thus, the exceptional part of the Confederation contradicted
that fundamental maxim of republican government, which requires that the sense
of the majority should prevail.
The problem that could not be resolved at the Convention has been removed. Now there is a uniform standard because of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth Amendments. A seed led to conception and a long pregnancy to birth.
The much maligned
Electoral College is an idea whose time has come. Dust
off the 1787 DeLorean and the National Popular Vote can jumpstart the flux
capacitor. Then the Electoral College can perform the
two functions for which it was designed—popular choice and national
security.
“One advantage of Electors
is,” according to Madison, “although generally the mere mouths of their
constituents, they may be intentionally left sometimes to their own judgment,
guided by further information that may be acquired by them: and finally, what is
of material importance, they will be able, when ascertaining, which may not be
till a late hour, that the first choice of their constituents is utterly
hopeless, to substitute in the electoral vote the name known to be their second
choice.” (LW, 180-181)
(c)2019 Marvin D. Jones. All rights reserved.
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http://www.marvindjones.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-electoral-idea-whose-time.html
http://www.marvindjones.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-electoral-college-is-1787-delorean.html
http://www.marvindjones.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-american-appendix.html
