If We are to Keep Electoral College, Let's do it Right

Perhaps, in the name of doing things as the Founding Fathers intended, we should not vote for president, at all. Instead, we should vote for delegates to the Electoral College.

I think on this as I reflect on how talk of going to a straight popular vote elicits strong sentiment against it from those who see the Electoral College as sacrosanct, something the Founding Fathers designed through divine inspiration.

And, I think perhaps they are right.

The Electoral College came to us as a compromise between those who wanted the president elected by popular vote and those who wanted him or her elected by Congress. Perhaps they wanted a little bit of republican governmentism to stand in this matter, with us electing a president in a republican fashion. But, tell me, how does the way we have ended up doing it count as a republican form of governing? We vote for a presidential candidate, but our votes are transferred to electors pledged in advance to vote for the candidate we have selected. It is a system that lacks the benefits of republican government. The electors bring no special study of the candidates, and no special wisdom of their own to the table, rather they reflect the vote of the people once the vote of the people has been skewed by such factors as the winner taking all.

So, then, maybe the Electoral College was not conceived at all as a way of administering a republican form of government. Maybe, instead, it was simply envisioned as a way to give a better balance of  power to smaller states. I've heard a lot of people argue this. The Electoral College representation helps small states have slightly higher representation than they would otherwise have. But, if helping the small states was the intent, why have electors at all? Why not just say the vote of the people will be calculated automatically to equal the proportions of each state's congressional delegation?

If the Founding Fathers didn't suggest just calculating the vote that way, but instead wanted electors, they must have had more in mind than just balancing things out for the small states.

So, I'm just saying. I'm just saying maybe we aren't doing it right. Yes, the Constitution does give each state the right to choose the electors in the manner it sees fit. But, I really wonder if this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind. 

And, I doubt it is.