david starling
Well-known member
The basis of this idea is that some of the founders were slave holders and therefore the Constitution and the election process are a product of slavery. This completely lacks understanding what our nation was working to build. Yes there was slavery and compromises were made but to hold the view it permeated every aspect of our building this country and needs to be discarded is reckless thinking, imo.
In considering how a president would be elected, the small states, whether they had slaves or not, were worried about a simple popular vote. In those days what the states held above all else was their sovereignty and they feared large states would outvote them time and again. "The Electoral College was a way to balance power between large and small states in America's new experiment in self-governance." In my humble opinion, that makes more sense to me than fearing slaves. To me it's has stood the test of time.
We never heard of the impeachment of people out of office because I don't know that it has ever been considered and I'm sure it would be debated virgorously. But, William Murphy, professor of American History at the State University of New York, stated that former officials like Biden may also be impeached after they leave office. Also Harvard Law School Professor Cass R. Sunstein, a prominent Democrat who served in the Obama White House and wrote Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide (2017). Republicans would never consider such action.
We already have a way to balance power, because each State gets 2 Senators, regardless of population. Every other elected office in the nation is decided by Popular vote. And, since the President represents and serves the entire country instead of a single State, the Presidency should be decided by the Popular vote of the entire country.
The Slave-States insisted on the Electoral College before they would ratify the Constitution. The single reason was, they feared an antiSlavery President.
The Republican Party is benefiting from the split between the Electoral and Popular votes, which originally appeared to occur in the Gore/Bush campaign*, and became much larger in the last Presidential election. Since you're a Republican, you WOULD say the Electoral College has stood the test of time, since it has recently benefited the Republican candidates. But, when it appeared that Romney would win the 2012 Popular vote (which ended up not being the case) and lose the Electoral vote, Trump himself declared the E.C. should be abolished!
*Gore ended up winning the Popular vote in Florida, which should have meant he won the Electoral College vote also, but by the time the recount was finished it was too late. And, the "non-Partisan" Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, denied a timely recount--get this--on the grounds that it would "harm the interests of George W. Bush"! Unbelievable!
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