They never quit! No matter what else you can say about them, the Democrats do not ever stop; once they have latched onto an idea they will not let it die. The Dracula idea that they keep raising is their stealth plan to do away with the Electoral College and institute a national popular vote for Presidential elections.
The newest plan was being touted this morning on C-Span by Jamie Raskin (D), a state senator from Maryland who was telling us how he has launched a plan that would give all of a state's EC delegates to the winner of the national popular vote. He proudly states that his state and New Jersey are the first to sign onto this scheme to make an end run around the clear intentions of the Constitution.
Ours is not a democracy, but a constitutional republic. The Constitution is to be the supreme law of the land, and it is only to be amended by a specific process that is explained in Article V of the Constitution itself; amendments are proposed by a 2/3 vote of each house of Congress and ratified by either ¾ of the state legislators or by the voters in ¾ of the states. That’s it…there is no back door.
But those who want to make this into the new system are attempting to do it by going around those simple, yet arduous, requirements while simultaneously claiming to be supporters of the Constitution. Mr. Raskin claims that he is simply urging the states to change the way they award delegates, yet he tries to say that this is not an attack on the Constitution; it is in fact the states exercising the rights of the states that are not specifically named in the Constitution.
That argument holds no water with me, since the changing of those rules in effect destroys the EC and the way the Constitution provides for the election of Presidents. It is in effect a Constitutional amendment that gets to skip the whole amendment process, no matter what they say. And it honestly bothers me when Mr. Raskin says that doing things this way somehow makes sure that every state’s votes will count. That flies in the face of history, common sense, and the reason that our Constitution is structured the way it is.
The argument that all states will count the same is a total crock, and is laughable at best. Are these people really claiming that large population states like California, Florida, Texas, or North Carolina that trend either left or right will not skew any election results? California will have a heck of a lot more influence in this system than a solid conservative state like Wyoming or Idaho, simply because they do not have massive populations. There is no fairness there if a state like Idaho has to give its EC votes to a liberal because they were able to carry hose huge states that are decidedly liberal.
The Constitution calls for the EC in order to avoid the rule by the mob, and so that every state can have a true voice in the election of our President. There is a reason that until the Constitution was amended there was only one post in the entire government that was chosen by popular votes…a member of the House of Representatives. Allowing a popular vote to determine a President would only encourage even more lying, demagoguery, and corruption than the system deals with today. The Founders were pretty smart guys, and they at least had enough sense to realize that “one man one vote” was not the ideal way to base a government, since that concept almost encourages people to campaign at the lowest common denominator.
I just want to make you guys aware that this idea is not dead and to keep an eye on your state legislators so that they don’t sign onto this travesty. We have enough problems here without having our state legislators doing their best to further undermine their system for the good of their political cronies.