Contempt for the Electoral College in the United States of America has reached a fever pitch. Millennials are expressing outrage in volumes on social media, and some are even taking to the streets for protest; the winner of the nation’s popular vote lost the Presidential election.
But are their complaints justified with reason?
Written accounts of the Founding Fathers who put together the Articles of Confederation and later the Constitution we know today clearly outline the purpose of America’s Electoral College.
These men were students of history in ways that cannot be paralleled today, if for no other reason than the inefficiency of information channels of the day meant they had to read a mile to gain an inch. Nowadays, thanks to the magic of the Internet, we can gain a mile by reading an inch.
The Founding Fathers of this country consciously constructed a representative republic including the Electoral College to AVOID the downfalls of previous democracies in human history.
One of the most widespread fundamental misunderstandings about this Union amongst my generation is captured in the use of the United States as a singular entity and not a plurality.
An example of such use, “The United States is in the World Cup!”
The United States IS —- WRONG!
The United States ARE!
Over time, fifty free and independent governments consciously came together to form a union. Balancing power between states in the Union was a major hurdle Founding Fathers overcame to reach an operational agreement, a Constitution . And as such the Electoral College limits any one particular large state, such as California (population 39 million), from leveraging populous power against smaller states, such as New Hampshire (population 1.3 million).
I will emphasize this point:
Each of the fifty states in the Union is a sovereign government that chooses to share its sovereignty with a larger governing body as an active member. At no point in history did these states agree to have their populations absorbed into a collective pool. The Electoral College is the principal mechanism to give each state an independent voice at the table of fifty (not 300 million).
The modern misuse of IS instead of ARE in the context of the U.S. highlights the root of the misunderstanding of the electoral college.
As a population, we’ve drifted out of ignorance, not purpose, towards this state of misunderstanding how these free and independent governments fundamentally interact with each other underneath one unifying flag.