Friday, November 11, 2016

If We Must Indulge Ourselves, Let's Go With the Popular Vote

   If we are not going to use the Electoral College the way it was designed, we might as well go to a purely popular vote. When we vote, we vote for the presidential candidate, not for the Electoral College representative, as it seems the Constitution intended us to do. Our vote is then translated to the name of an unknown Electoral College candidate. We don't even know the name of that Electoral College person who ends up receiving our vote. We don't know his or her name and we don't see it in the newspaper the next day. And, when the Electoral College members meet, it is hardly to deliberate who will make the best president. They simply rubber stamp the person they were sent to vote for.
   I'm not sure why this all isn't considered a mockery of the way it was set up. And, I wonder how it is we speak so much of supporting the Constitution, yet we never so much as give this part of the Constitution our thought, much less speak up for it.
   It seems to me, we've set aside the Founding Fathers' intention that we elect people so they can use their wisdom to decide who will make the best president. I think it would be neat if the Electoral College were fully functional. I think it would be wonderful if the members of the Electoral College were not bound to vote for anyone in particular. It seems that is what the Founding Fathers had in mind. A fully functioning Electoral College, what would be wrong with that? Let us, the populace, step aside and let the Electoral College do its thing. Our vote should not be to elect a president, but to elect the Electoral College. And, when the Electoral College meets, it should not rubber stamp its votes, but deliberate and consider who should be named president.
   Talk about revolutionizing the way we elect a president, if we were just to follow the Constitution, that would revolutionize it.
  But, if we don't like the way it was set up -- if we would rather set it aside and vote directly for president -- then let's do away with the Electoral College and go to a purely popular vote, not one that is skewed.
   I don't know that the current system achieves any more than creating a chance that the person who doesn't win the popular vote still has a chance to win the election, as happened this year.
   If we don't like what the Founding Fathers set up, if we can't resist but to vote for the presidential candidates ourselves, let's cut to the chase and cut the charade and go with a purely popular vote, for it is enjoyable to vote directly for president. If we insist on that indulgence, then let's do it right.

No comments:

Post a Comment