Why We Are a Republic, Not a Democracy, by
Walter E. Williams, 1/19/18.
Hillary Clinton blamed the Electoral
College for her stunning defeat in the 2016 presidential election in her latest
memoirs, “What Happened.”
Some have claimed that the Electoral
College is one of the most dangerous institutions in American politics.
Why? They say the Electoral College
system, as opposed to a simple majority vote, distorts the one-person, one-vote
principle of democracy because electoral votes are not distributed according to
population.
To back up their claim, they point out
that the Electoral College gives, for example, Wyoming citizens
disproportionate weight in a presidential election.
Put another way, Wyoming, a state with a
population of about 600,000, has one member in the House of Representatives and
two members in the U.S. Senate, which gives the citizens of Wyoming three
electoral votes, or one electoral vote per 200,000 people.
California, our most populous state, has
more than 39 million people and 55 electoral votes, or approximately one vote
per 715,000 people.
Comparatively, individuals in Wyoming
have nearly four times the power in the Electoral College as Californians.
Many people whine that using the
Electoral College instead of the popular vote and majority rule is
undemocratic. I’d say that they are absolutely right. Not deciding who will be
the president by majority rule is not democracy.
But the Founding Fathers went to great
lengths to ensure that we were a republic and not a democracy. In fact, the
word democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, or any other of our founding documents.
How about a few quotations expressed by
the Founders about democracy?
In Federalist Paper No. 10, James
Madison wanted to prevent rule by majority faction, saying, “Measures are too
often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the
minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing
majority.”
John Adams warned in a letter, “Remember
democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There
never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”
Edmund Randolph said, “That in tracing
these evils to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and
follies of democracy.”
Then-Chief Justice John Marshall
observed, “Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the
difference is like that between order and chaos.”
The Founders expressed contempt for the
tyranny of majority rule, and throughout our Constitution, they placed
impediments to that tyranny. Two houses of Congress pose one obstacle to
majority rule. That is, 51 senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives
and 49 senators.
The president can veto the wishes of 535
members of Congress. It takes two-thirds of both houses of Congress to override
a presidential veto.
To change the Constitution requires not
a majority but a two-thirds vote of both houses, and if an amendment is
approved, it requires ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.
Finally, the Electoral College is yet
another measure that thwarts majority rule. It makes sure that the highly
populated states—today, mainly 12 on the east and west coasts, cannot run
roughshod over the rest of the nation. That forces a presidential candidate to
take into consideration the wishes of the other 38 states.
Those Americans obsessed with rule by
popular majorities might want to get rid of the Senate, where states,
regardless of population, have two senators.
Should we change representation in the
House of Representatives to a system of proportional representation and
eliminate the guarantee that each state gets at least one representative?
Currently, seven states with populations
of 1 million or fewer have one representative, thus giving them
disproportionate influence in Congress.
While we’re at it, should we make all
congressional acts by majority rule? When we’re finished with establishing
majority rule in Congress, should we then move to change our court system,
which requires unanimity in jury decisions, to a simple majority rule?
My question is: Is it ignorance of or
contempt for our Constitution that fuels the movement to abolish the Electoral
College?
This article has been republished with
permission from The Daily Signal.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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