So, I have heard before that the electoral college system - the very system that has allowed the United States to obtain the dubious distinction of seeing the candidate with fewer overall votes (significantly fewer in the case of the current president) nevertheless officially be declared as the "winner" of a national presidential election - was one of the last remaining vestiges of the supposed compromises towards slave states.
Of course, those who want to defend the Electoral College system are many, and they are of all political persuasions. I know some Democrats who, despite having gotten screwed in two presidential elections in recent memory. The Democratic candidate in 2000, Al Gore, received half a million more votes nationally in the election than George W. Bush, yet officially lost. And again in 2016, when Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton received 2.7 million more votes than Donald Trump nationally, yet officially lost that race. You might think that Democrats would be screaming about scrapping the Electoral College system, but you would be wrong. Some would like to see it go, to be sure. But most Democrats - particularly the mainstream Democrats - do not want to change this system. There is no move towards scrapping it in favor of a fairer system that might better represent the nation's will.
Let us remember that the United States is supposed to be a democracy. We Americans pride ourselves (or at least we did not all that long ago) on being the world's first modern democracy.
Yet, we have some major problems and blemishes with our democratic institutions. The Electoral College is one of the most glaring aspects that has failed the American people, more than once. Yet, it is not the only problem. Not by a long shot. We also have gerrymandering, which seems to allow politicians to choose their voters, rather than the other way around. We have a two party system, when it has become crystal clear that two parties hardly encompass the interests and aspirations of a nation of well over 300 million. Then, we have all of this money in our elections, particularly (but certainly not exclusively) on the national level. Finally, we have some incredibly blatant corruption, in which prominent politicians are outright given money and perks, even though they often try to hide this, or at least to sweep it under the rug. Lobbyists petition these major political leaders, and thus, these politicians wind up protecting the best interests of these moneyed parties, rather than the people who elected them into office.
These are some of the glaring failures that clearly undermine our democracy, and I could go on about each of them.
Today, however, I just wanted to remind everyone of the rather dark history that brought the Electoral College system into being in the first place. Historically, of course, slave states tended to have smaller populations than the wealthier, more industrialized northern states, and so they wanted some assurances for equal representation, or a greater share of power. One of these solutions was the Electoral College system, which gives smaller states bigger representation on the national level. It is the reason why each state - regardless of how big the population - has two senators apiece.
But slavery officially ended in 1865, when the Civil War ended, right? After all, Lincoln had proclaimed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves, and once the Confederate state of the South surrendered, that was the end of it, right?
Well, maybe it should have been the end of it, but it was not. In the 1870's, numerous Southern states adapted system of official segregation and racism. Whites and blacks were to remain separate at almost every possible turn. Officially, when this was challenged in the Supreme Court, it was deemed to be constitutional, at least officially. The infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896 declared that segregation was perfectly fine, so long as it was "separate but equal."
Of course, everyone realized that blacks were not really meant to be on an equal footing with whites. It was whites who had instituted these policies in the first place, and they did not do so with the best interests of blacks in mind. If there are any doubts about that, just keep in mind the extensive history of lynchings, or black voter suppression (even though legally, blacks had the right to vote, conditions were invented, including outright bullying, that made it very, very difficult for blacks to actually practice their legal right to vote). And so, neighborhoods remained strictly segregated, and blacks and whites had separate entrances to public buildings, separate sections in restaurants and theaters and hotels and buses and trains, and there were benches and water fountains that were restricted for the enjoyment of whites, and others that were given to blacks. This was hardly a fair system, and it clearly was meant to maintain white supremacy, in the aftermath of the forcible end of slavery in the South.
Yes, this Jim Crow segregation system, as it was known, was the best system that angry whites could obtain to replace slavery after they were defeated in the Civil War. Yet, this system lasted for nearly a century afterward. To put that into perspective, I was born just a little more than a decade after this legal and social Jim Crow segregation system was finally officially eliminated with a series of civil rights bills that were forced through Congress by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the mid-1960's. Anyone who is 55 or over was actually alive for this, and most people 60 or older are old enough to remember it. President Jimmy Carter remembers it, and so does President Bill Clinton. Donald Trump is old enough to remember it, too, even though he lived in the northern state of New York.
And even while most official elements of Jim Crow segregation were finally abolished, institutional racism has proven to be as stubborn and difficult to eliminate, or even to minimize, as it was shortly after Lincoln officially ended slavery. Those who seek to preserve the privileged status of whites still use certain gimmicks and tricks that are, frankly, against the spirit of true democracy, let alone equality, in order to preserve what remaining privileges they can. And let us make no mistake and be honest by calling a spade a spade, and call this what it is: the remnant of a system invented by whites and designed to preserve the privileges enjoyed by whites.
That is what makes the current problems with some of our elections so problematic, particularly gerrymandering and, you guessed it, the Electoral System.
Just in case you suspect that race has nothing to do with it, take a look at what former Maine Governor Paul LePage (shockingly, a Republican!) recently said about the possibility of eliminating the Electoral College system. LePage served as governor of Maine from 2011 until very early this year, and here is what he said on Main radio station WVOM recently in defense of preserving the Electoral College:
"Actually, what would happen if they do what they say they’re going to, white people will not have anything to say.
"It’s only going to be the minorities that would elect. It would be California, Texas, Florida."
This is a prominent politician championing the Electoral College so that the white race will maintain a voice in the political system.
Does that sound a bit racist? It should because it is. LePage is clearly suggesting that states that have a vast majority of whites are going to lose their political voice, and he is clearly pointing to other states that have a lot of "minorities" that will then control everything politically. My question is that, if they are indeed "minorities," how are they possibly going to control the national political agenda?
But LePage continues:
“All the small states like Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wyoming, Montana, Rhode Island, you’ll never see a presidential candidate again. You’ll never see anybody at the national stage come to our state. We’re gonna be forgotten people. It’s an insane, insane process."
"This is so insane. Why don’t we just adopt the constitution of Venezuela and be done with it. Let’s have a dictator. That’s what you’re going to boil down to. You’re going to have five or six states that are going to control everything in Washington."
Actually, from what I can see, you are going to have a majority of Americans who actually control what happens in Washington, and not just a few states. Because that is what democracy - real democracy - looks like. It is not supposed to be restricted to benefit one race of people, but rather, to serve and benefit all of the people of a nation.
Hardly a revolutionary idea.
Yet, it clearly has strong opponents these days once again, clearly.
Here is the link to the article about these rather obnoxious (yet hardly shocking these days) statement by the former Main governor:
Ex-Maine GOP gov: White people won't get 'anything to say' if Electoral College is eliminated BY JUSTIN WISE - 02/28/19:
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