The Electoral College is Too Democratic: A Counterpoint

The Electoral College was an elitist institution designed to keep populist buffoons out of the Presidency.

You have never voted for president and probably never will. When you “vote for president,” you are actually voting for these electors who are tasked with choosing the president. To modern ears, the Electoral College sounds like a mockery of democracy. The people speak, but the Electoral College has the right to silent their voices. That’s right, but that’s the point. But it much the same way, the Supreme Court retains the right to veto unconstitutional democratic legislation, while the U.S. Congress has the power to impeach and remove a popular president.

The Electoral College, like the Senate and Bill of Rights, is an undemocratic institution carefully crafted to preserve the vertical division of political power among the national government, the states and the people to prevent the tyranny of the majority.

Why we Have an Electoral College

The United States is not, and was never intended to be, a democracy. It was not intended to have major national decisions made by popular vote. It was not intended to have power centralized in one federal body, but dispersed among the states. Not only was this country never intended to be a democracy, but we should not want it to be one. Would we want the decision to go to war to be made by majority vote? Or the decision of who sits on the Supreme Court for life? Or which groups…