Why the Popular Vote is Dangerous
By:John Douglas
LibertyTalks.NET
Original article:
https://libertytalks.net/why-the-popular-vote-is-dangerous/
On Tuesday, failed Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said that she supports abolishing the electoral college and replacing it with the popular vote. This comes on the heels of many Democrats wanting to get rid of the institution and Rep. AOC attacking Republicans on twitter for arguing that the United States isn’t a Democracy. Spoiler alert: it isn’t.
This should be very concerning to all citizens of the United States that a mainstream party is not attacking but calling for the abolition of an important American institution, among many others. And not because they think it’s a bad idea, but because it has caused them to lose elections no less. Calling for the abolition of key American institution is nothing new for the Democrats. They have called for the elimination of the Senate and for packing the Supreme Court.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔
@AOC
Well, it’s official: Republicans are now arguing that the US isn’t (& shouldn’t be) a democracy.
This is what they believe. From lobbyists writing their bills to sabotaging our civil rights, the GOP works to end democracy.
In reality, we have to grow it. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/27/opinion/aoc-crenshaw-republicans-democracy.html …
Opinion | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Understands Democracy Better Than Republicans Do
The idea that proponents of greater electoral equity have to quiet down because we live in a ‘republic’ is absurd.
The reason Democrats are so prone to call for the elimination of these institutions is because their view of the world, that everything can be summed up to intersectional imbalances and inequality and therefore, all progenitors of said inequality must be destroyed. Therefore, since the electoral college makes the voting system unequal and gives smaller states a larger share of individual voting power, that means it must be destroyed.
Tyranny of the Majority
There is a lot of problems with this line of thinking. The first is the idea that the healthiest thing for the people is a popular vote because then that makes them more equal. This is entirely false and backwards in many cases. The problem with a national popular vote is not that is makes everyone equal, but that it makes everyone less equal. You may be scratching your head at that one but take example. If there was to only be a popular vote, then that means you need 50% + 1 to win an election. In other words, you need a majority to win. If this were to become the norm, then in actuality what you would have is the majority ruling over the minority, or the 51% ruling over the 49%. This creates and inherently unequal system in which most of the country is deciding how the minority ought to live. If you don’t believe that this could be a problem, then I point you to my article about the fall of Athens and the Greek arguments against democracy here.
Death of Federalism
One of the other problems of getting rid of the electoral college is the abolition of federalism in the elections. One of the largest principles in the United States is that of federalism, that the federal government shares equal power with the states in running the nation. This is enshrined in the 10th amendment of the constitution. The electoral college is a system that gives states the right to have a say in the election, not just the people.
When the people of a state vote for the president, it is up for the state delegates to cast the electoral votes in favor or against what the people voted for. This is a fail safe against the people, who are not always in the right just because they voted, more on that later. The states having the right to go against the people and tell them no is one of the corner stones of federalism and outs the states on equal footing as the people. An abolition of the electoral college would take away all the power from the states and make the process even less equal.
This is very important because for a state to survive, it needs to have influence from the one, the few, and the many. Abolishing the electoral college would be a major blow for the few and create a situation in which the many are given a large amount of power. This is bad because this easily disseminates into the mob.
Democracy is not a Virtue
Lastly, but not least, the problem with the Democrats wanting to abolish the electoral college is that they are operating from the premise that large amounts of people voting is good, which by all historical accounts, is false.
It is a major assumption that it is good and healthy for democracy or even republicanism that massive amounts of people engaging in politics is good. This assumption is false and comes from a misperception that people voting and people being able to vote is the same thing. It is true that everyone who is a citizen should be able to vote. It is not true that we should want everyone voting. This is because for political engagement to be healthy is must be informed political engagement. When lots of people are encouraged to vote, while not informed on the issues, then the only thing that they are voting on is tribalism. This is very unhealthy because voting based on tribalism means that a vote against you is an attack against you.
This means that people begin to see more and more of each other as evil instead of political opponents. But since Democrats see everything through the lens of power imbalances, they fail to see the major risks of all of this. If America moves towards popular vote, it will be another blow to one of the institutions of the country and make the structures of the nation all the more softer.
Original article:
https://libertytalks.net/why-the-popular-vote-is-dangerous/