THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Wednesday Column

Critical Thinking w/ Mark Angelotti

3/20/19

     According to a March 2015 study by the United States Census Bureau, 62.7 percent of the population of the United States live in cities, while these cities make up just 3.5 percent of the total land area of the U.S.

     These cities, as you know if you’ve ever looked in the news after an election, routinely vote Democrat and are known Democratic Party strongholds. Therefore, it is no surprise whatsoever that it is all Democrats calling for the abolition of the Electoral College, the system put in place by our founding fathers which decides who will become President of the United States, according to our Constitution.

     Presidential hopeful and current Democrat senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren said in a CNN televised town hall, “...we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College...” and obviously, the biggest argument for this would be “every vote counts.” Warren even said this in her statement. But in a world without the Electoral College, the votes of individuals from big cities (62.7 percent of the population) would be the only votes that truly count because that’s where the majority of Americans live!

     States like Wyoming, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Southern states, most of Texas, even most of California, nearly anyone who doesn’t live on the East or West coast and literally anyone who doesn't live in a big city would ALL be ignored by presidential candidates. Kiss goodbye to “every vote counts” because without the electoral college, the votes of only 51 percent of the population would count because that is the majority! It’s called the “tyranny of the majority” for a reason because that 51 percent will have TOTAL rule over the entire other 49 percent of the country, even though they’re almost equal in size.

     The Electoral College is more important now than it ever has been before in our history, and now is the time Democrats want to get rid of it. And if you're a Democrat, I understand why: you would win every single election because the big cities always vote for you! That’s not to say Republicans will NEVER win the popular vote, the last time it happened was in 2004 with George W. Bush (and the next time will be President Trump in 2020) so it’s totally possible, but the national map as a whole certainly leans Democrat without a doubt. And correct me if I’m mistaken, but folks in the big cities don’t understand some of the hardships suburban and especially rural Americans face every day.

     The United States was founded not as a democracy, but as a republic. And it was written into our constitution for a reason. The twelfth amendment clearly lays out how the President and Vice President are to be elected, and removing the electoral college would require a Constitutional amendment which requires a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a Constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures.

     This is obviously unlikely to happen anytime soon, but remain aware of the threat which the tyranny of the majority may potentially pose. All of our freedoms that we are privileged enough to have in this country could be taken away with a pen, even easier than how we got them in the first place, with the sword.

Mark Angelotti is a weekly columnist for As a Matter of Fact.

You can follow him on Twitter here.