Why We Are a Republic, Not a Democracy
Hillary
Clinton blamed the Electoral College for her stunning defeat in the
2016 presidential election in her latest memoirs, “What Happened.”
Some have claimed that the Electoral College is one of the most dangerous institutions in American politics.
Why? They say the Electoral College system, as
opposed to a simple majority vote, distorts the one-person, one-vote
principle of democracy because electoral votes are not distributed
according to population.
To back up their claim, they point out that the
Electoral College gives, for example, Wyoming citizens disproportionate
weight in a presidential election.
Put another way, Wyoming, a state with a
population of about 600,000, has one member in the House of
Representatives and two members in the U.S. Senate, which gives the
citizens of Wyoming three electoral votes, or one electoral vote per
200,000 people.
California, our most populous state, has more than
39 million people and 55 electoral votes, or approximately one vote per
715,000 people.
Comparatively, individuals in Wyoming have nearly four times the power in the Electoral College as Californians.
Many people whine that using the Electoral College
instead of the popular vote and majority rule is undemocratic. I’d say
that they are absolutely right. Not deciding who will be the president
by majority rule is not democracy.
But the Founding Fathers went to great lengths to
ensure that we were a republic and not a democracy. In fact, the word
democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, or any other of our founding documents.
How about a few quotations expressed by the Founders about democracy?
In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison wanted
to prevent rule by majority faction, saying, “Measures are too often
decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the
minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing
majority.”
John Adams warned in a letter, “Remember democracy
never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There
never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”
Edmund Randolph said, “That in tracing these evils
to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies
of democracy.”
Then-Chief Justice John Marshall observed,
“Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like
that between order and chaos.”
The Founders expressed contempt for the tyranny of
majority rule, and throughout our Constitution, they placed impediments
to that tyranny. Two houses of Congress pose one obstacle to majority
rule. That is, 51 senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives
and 49 senators.
The president can veto the wishes of 535 members
of Congress. It takes two-thirds of both houses of Congress to override a
presidential veto.
To change the Constitution requires not a majority
but a two-thirds vote of both houses, and if an amendment is approved,
it requires ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.
Finally, the Electoral College is yet another
measure that thwarts majority rule. It makes sure that the highly
populated states—today, mainly 12 on the east and west coasts, cannot
run roughshod over the rest of the nation. That forces a presidential
candidate to take into consideration the wishes of the other 38 states.
Those Americans obsessed with rule by popular
majorities might want to get rid of the Senate, where states, regardless
of population, have two senators.
Should we change representation in the House of
Representatives to a system of proportional representation and eliminate
the guarantee that each state gets at least one representative?
Currently, seven states with populations of 1
million or fewer have one representative, thus giving them
disproportionate influence in Congress.
While we’re at it, should we make all
congressional acts by majority rule? When we’re finished with
establishing majority rule in Congress, should we then move to change
our court system, which requires unanimity in jury decisions, to a
simple majority rule?
My question is: Is it ignorance of or contempt for our Constitution that fuels the movement to abolish the Electoral College?
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