Letter to the Editor: Electoral college good for the country

Published 4:00 pm Friday, June 14, 2019

There seems to be no shortage of bad ideas coming from the left in America.

Calls for unfettered immigration, abortion on demand, political correctness, and a full on embracement of socialism that would make Joseph Stalin proud are just a few. All of which are an existential threat to life and liberty. But their rekindled fondness for the idea of abolishing the electoral college is much more subtle, yet equally dangerous.

It seems many people have either forgotten or never learned that the founding fathers did not want a pure democracy. In fact, they feared a pure democracy and were determined to forestall the inherent dangers of what James Madison referred to as the “tyranny of the majority.”

That is exactly why they established a republic with a system of checks and balances that safeguard not only the rights of the majority, but the rights of the minority as well. They well understood that historically, majority rule only works for the majority and always leads to resentment, and subsequent implosion. And so, the framers believed that it would be a bad idea to let the cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia make decisions for the rural, less populated areas of the country.

Therefore, we don’t pick our president in a winner take all vote. We have the electoral college for that. And the left does not like that. And after the results of the last presidential election, they really do not like that. As a matter of fact, they dislike it so much so that 14 Democratic Party ran states have joined the so called National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which is an agreement between the states that join to award their electoral delegates to the winner of the national popular vote regardless of how the voters within their states vote.

These states apparently do not have a problem with disenfranchising their citizens. This is simply baffling and short sighted in the extreme. Fortunately, the states involved have no legal force as they only account for 189 of the 270 delegates that would be needed for the pact to go into effect. So as of now, the NPVC is more symbolic than it is anything else and it would most certainly be found unconstitutional in many ways, Ray v. Blair just to name one.

However, I would be willing to bet that if President Trump wins the popular vote in 2020, the NPVC will disappear faster than Hillary’s emails. It seems that far too often on many issues we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

So just ask yourself, do you want the people of New York and California choosing the leader of the free world for you? Because without the electoral college, that is precisely what would happen.

Tommy Roberts

Fitzgerald