As we celebrate America at 250, there is a part of our founding in the Constitution (Article II, Section 1, Clause 2) about which some on the Left gnash their teeth – the Electoral College.
For example, a few days ago, a former Biden administration official asked publicly, “What if we selected our President by letting the person who got the most votes take the office, instead of the Electoral College?”
Townhall.com reported on this incident: “Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is being mocked across the internet after he suggested at a town hall event in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that abolishing the Electoral College would have resulted in a Democrat in the White House. Many critics were quick to point out that in the 2024 election, Donald Trump won not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote in a landslide.”
What is the Electoral College, and why does the left hate it so?
It has to do with how “we the people” vote for the president. Many today see the Electoral College as an out-of-date relic, and they want to abolish it and have it replaced with the popular vote. Defenders of the Constitution instead say that the Electoral College was a brilliant move by the Founding Fathers to protect us from demagogues.
One expert on the Constitution, including the Electoral College, I enjoy speaking with is John Eidsmoe, longtime law professor and author of “Christianity and the Constitution.” I spoke with John on a radio segment about calls to abandon the Electoral College system.
I asked him to define the Electoral College. Eidsmoe said, “Well, first of all, it’s not a college, and it meets every four years for the purpose of casting votes for the presidency. And, in fact, it doesn’t even convene in Washington, D.C. Delegates to the Electoral College will convene in the capital of each of the 50 states, and they will cast their votes [for the president].”
The number of delegates to the Electoral College differ from state to state, based on how many members of Congress they have. For example, Wyoming, has only three delegates for the Electoral College, two for their U.S. senators and one for their lone congressional seat. All told, Google notes, “There are 538 electors, equivalent to 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, plus three for Washington, D.C.”
Eidsmoe continued, “The idea of the Electoral College was that we are not simply one national government. We are – they would have said “a confederation” – today we might say, “a federation” of states, 50 states now, with certain powers delegated to the federal government. But other [powers] reserved for the individual states. And the Electoral College was a means to insure that each state had a role in electing the president.” [emphasis added]
If the Left had their way, then national elections for the presidency would likely be decided by the majority of votes of New York City, of Los Angeles, of Chicago and a few other big cities. We would be reduced to mob rule on the national scale.
We are a constitutional republic (with democratic input), not a pure democracy. As author Tara Ross, an expert on the Electoral College, reminds us in her recent book to help children understand the Constitution: Pure democracy equals two wolves and a lamb voting on what’s for dinner. The lamb ends up on the menu every time!
Through the years, I’ve had the privilege to interview Ross on the Electoral College and attacks on same. She is a retired lawyer and has written a few books on the subject, including “Enlightened Democracy” and “The Indispensable Electoral College.” Recently, Tara Ross has written the above-referenced children’s book, “We Created a Country: The Story of Our Constitution.”
Why did the founders create the Electoral College in the first place?
As a constitutional safeguard to protect us from the abuse of power. The Founding Fathers recognized the Biblical concept of the sinfulness of man. This is why our governing document still works – it was predicated on the truth that man is sinful, and, therefore, power must be divided.
As James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution, said in Federalist 51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
In short, the Electoral College protects us from the abuse of political power. It helps “we the people” (not just the elites) to have a say in who becomes the president. Could this be why the Left hates it?
