When I started this blog I wanted to be as inclusive as possible. I wanted everyone to see a part of themselves here. For that reason I have intentionally stayed away from politics and religion. However, we are in a unique situation right now. One that I simply can't ignore. As Americans we believe in democracy and the notion that all men are created equal. But we've established a political system that runs contrary to these core beliefs. We've ended up with a 2-party system where those shunning big politics and flying the banner of the Independent party have essentially given up their power and ability to participate in our government. We also have an electoral college that unfairly assigns power to those states with the least citizens and, therefore, steals the voice from the majority.
So how did we get here? I'm glad you asked. Almost 250 years ago a bunch of white, land-owning men got together to try to come up with a system of government for our fledgling nation. There was a great rift between those that believed in a strong centralized government and those that felt a centralized government sounded too much like a monarchy and we left England to get away from such a system. So they compromised on a system where the majority of responsibilities of governing (policing, education, social services) would be maintained by the individual states, but that larger matters (printing money, organizing a military, regulating a free market) would be handled by a representative government (side note: My spell check has made me acutely aware that I apparently don't know how to spell the word 'government'. That's probably why I became an accountant.)
So, the states got to maintain most of their independence while still having the support of a larger national government made up of their representatives. But who are the representatives? How are they chosen? How many do we each get? If we award representation based on population, then small states like Connecticut and Delaware will have very little say. But if we give every state an equal number of representatives then large states like New York and Pennsylvania get very little say. What to do? What to do? Welcome Congress. Congress is composed of 2 separate houses, one built of representation based on population (the House) and one giving equal voice to each state (the Senate). Every issue of national importance must be approved by each house so both the big states, the small states, and everyone in between goes home happy.
Not quite. There was another issue driving this concept of representation other than population. Slavery. Citizens of the southern states felt that, when it comes to counting population, slaves should count. Women and indentured white farm workers counted, so why not slaves? Okay, I'm going to answer that question, but don't shoot the messenger. These are the thoughts of our founding fathers, not me. Here we go. Slaves were not counted as part of the population because they weren't considered human. They were chattel. They were bought and sold on the free market just like pigs and horses. A pig doesn't count so why should (once again, not my word) a negro? By excluding slaves from the census we would almost guarantee that the southern states would bail on the whole Constitutional Convention and form their own sovereign entities. People like James Madison knew this would be a deal breaker and end their foray into democracy before it even began so he proposed the Three Fifths compromise. Each slave would be valued equal to 60% of a free man for census purposes. So now all the states feel they're being heard and receiving fair representation.
This brings us to the Electoral College. I hate to say it, but the founding fathers didn't exactly have implicit trust in you and I. Actually they didn't have trust in me at all. I'm a woman (a nasty woman, but we'll save that for Part II). The only citizens who were permitted to vote were other white, land-owning men. Being a land owner was essential, but the founding fathers basically thought farmers were too stupid to understand what they were voting for. So they put in place the Electoral College, a group of white, land-owning men nominated by each state to cast the all important votes for the Presidency on behalf of the citizens of their respective states.
Now, everyone knows that it's possible to win the most individual votes but still lose the election, but most people don't quite understand how. Let me try to break it down for you. When it comes to passing laws, having 2 separate houses, one based on population and one on equal representation, makes sense because the 2 vote independently of each other. A bill has to be approved by the House (yay large and slave states) then it has to pass the Senate (shout out to all you small states). But when it comes to electing a President those 2 get lumped together. So if you have 53 members in the House and 2 in the Senate, you get 55 Electoral votes. Conversely, if you have 1 member in the House and 2 in the Senate you get 3 votes. I know this is getting weird but stay with me.
This SOUNDS okay, doesn't it? Each state should have the same number of votes as they do Congressional representatives. It SOUNDS good, but when you do the math, it just doesn't work out. For example. The state of Wyoming has the lowest population of the 50 states. It's so low (less than 600,000) that it only has 1 member in the House. So, Wyoming gets 1 vote for their congressperson and 2 votes for their Senators, 3 total. That works out to 1 Presidential vote for every 200k citizens in Wyoming. Not bad. Now lets look at California. California's population is nearly 39 million entitling it to 53 members of the House. So it has 53 votes for their congresspersons and 2 for their Senators, 55 total. That works out to 1 vote for every >700,000 citizens. Seems kind of unbalanced now, doesn't it? As if that weren't bad enough almost every state in the Union (excluding Maine and Nebraska) have a winner-take-all Electoral system. So if 51% of voters in a state vote for a particular candidate, that candidate gets 100% of the state's Electoral votes. Essentially, if you vote for a candidate that doesn't win the popular vote in your state, too bad. Your vote doesn't count at all. Oh yeah, and did I mention that there's no federal law saying the Elector MUST go along with the popular vote? Historically they do, but there's nothing stopping them from going rogue and voting for their rich but simple-minded nephew.
If you stayed awake through that last paragraph, I want to sincerely thank you. The informed voters of America thank you.
Bottom line here, America was founded as a democratic republic. We are supposed to believe that all men are created equal. It's right there in the Declaration of Independence. 2nd paragraph. Look it up. But the Electoral College is a very firm reminder that, even today, not all men are created equal. It was formed out of fear on the part of the founding fathers that we aren't intelligent enough to elect a President on our own. Maintaining the antiquated system of an Electoral College denigrates the intelligence of American citizens and negates the voice and the will of the people. This past Tuesday was the second time in my lifetime that I saw a person declared President-elect who did not have the support of the majority. It's happened a total of 5 times in American history. I can only hope and pray that it doesn't happen again.
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