It’s a part of our history and we should embrace it. [Insert irrelevant anecdote about the Founding Fathers’ intent.]
Why You Are Nazi Hitler bin Satan
Yeah, that’s what they said about slavery, too. Those founder guys had a lot of good ideas, but they were not infallible, and would never have claimed that their compromise document was perfect either. We can, and should, make changes that improve it. It isn’t scripture; the Bill of Rights is not the Ten Commandments. (Actually, in retrospect, the former is a MUCH better document than the latter. Score: God, 0, Thomas Jefferson, 1.)
But in the meantime while we wait for change, wanna talk history?
We have the College not for any of the reasons its defenders mistakenly cite today. It was a compromise between the Northern and Southern blocs over the flashpoint of slavery. Slaves couldn’t vote, but they lived in the South. Remember the famous 3/5ths compromise? How do you make that work, with a system that’s straight up, one man one vote? So to inflate the Southern bloc to be on the same playing field as the North, without enfranchising blacks, the E.C. had to be contrived. Yes—it was contrived to artificially further sectionalist aims, in order to avoid enfranchising slaves.
In case you missed that,
The Electoral College was contrived to artificially further sectionalist aims, in order to avoid enfranchising slaves.
As we can see, whitey was hard at work, and the black man was kept down. (“Get low, get low, get low, get low.”)
Further, with the popular vote, states would have had an incentive to pursue womens’ suffrage—a means through which a state could instantly double its weight in votes. But the system was specifically designed to prevent that: under the E.C., a state with full suffrage is worth the same as one stuck in the Middle Ages. This was completely deliberate. And it is the one goal the Electoral College has ever succeeded in meeting.
Modern arguments in favor of the E.C. are ignorant, both of modern political realities, and the historical “ideals” on which their warped system is based.
Historical Argument for the Electoral College
Those there nigras an’ wimmen might start gettin’ crazy ideas in their funny-shaped heads about equality and votin’! We gotta put a stop to that, or someday they might have an inspiring presidential candidate who speaks for them.
Yee-haw! Yogurt and mayonnaise sandwiches, my favorite.
