Way back when it was invented by The Founders, the only folks who were elected by a direct vote of “We, The People” were members of The House of Representatives.
U.S. Senators were selected by the States.
Presidents were selected by a vote of the Electors of the States, and the Electors were selected by the States.
A “Presidential Campaign” consisted of a breif season of going from State to State and making direct appeals to the electors of each State.
“Democracy” was a vile epithet ranking somewhere between “S#!+” and “F@#$”, and pretty much everyone in the newly-forged Federal government understood that, because the government had been set up just so, the structure of it was NOT to be trifled with.
The Executive Branch was not directly beholden to the people, but to the States, which makes great sense, since it was the States who sent their delegates to the Constitutional Convention to begin with, and it was the States that ratified said Constitution.
With the Senate being a State-elected body, and the house being elected by popular votes in local districts, there was a set balance in the Legislative Branch between the direct interests of the poeple, and the interests of the several States.
The Judicial Branch was intended to be the weakest of all, appointed by The President, confirmed by The Senate (representing the States), and accountable to Congress on pain of impeachment.
We’ve destroyed all that, now, as we’ve continually folded, spinled , and mutilated the system to make it function as exactly what the founders most feared: direct democracy.
As in the last two elections, you may fully expect that post-election spin will — yet again — target that last remaining vestige of The Founders’ wisdom: The Electoral College.
The Republic founded under The Constitution has been set off its foundations for nearly 100 years, but we Conservatives have managed to hold it together up to the present time. Perhaps The Divine might deign to intervene with another Great Revival that would return men en masse to moral decision-making, and thus re-establish the Repulic on its original footings. Barring that, however, I fear that a great deal of American blood will again be shed on this soil to prevent the final demolition of this once-great Republic.
In the meaintime, enjoy your quasi-democratic oligarchy.
Thanks for posting that H.
I am on edge for our election tonight, so I will consider and learn from this, in the morning.
:-)