Metro Versus Retro: Should We Abandon the Electoral College?

BreakPoint with Charles Colson ^ | September 02, 2004 | Mark Earley

[Paleo Conservative]

13.


50 * (1/4) = 12.5

[Melas]

We are a Republic not a Democracy much to the chagrin of the Liberals. A look at the red and blue states indicates the true vale and the tremendous foresight of the founders.

That statement is becoming my pet peeve. Republic is just as generic a term as democracy. I could easily name half a dozen forms of republican government, from the Patrician Republic of Rome to the communist republics of the 20th century. Plato himself wrote of 5 distinct forms of Republican government.

We are a, Constitutionally Federated Democratic Republic. The democratic process is CENTRAL to our form of republican government, and in casual speech, it's every bit as accuate/innaccurate to call the USA a democracy as it is a republic.

[hinckley buzzard]

As political scientist Judith Best notes, the electoral-vote system, in combination with the winner-take-all allocation used by nearly every state, creates a “distribution condition..."

True but I don't think that was the reason for the electoral college. The electoral college is composed of representatives of the State legislatures, and was established to insure that presidents would be responsive to the concerns of the States (as opposed to the people as a mass.)

It is a pillar of federalism and reflects the importance the Founders attached to the States, and the need to give States counterbalancing power versus the central government

In short, the President is to be elected by the State legislatures, not the "people."

[xzins]

Only Massachusetts Kennedys should be allowed to vote, and their opinions should be forced down the throat of the rest of us.

[KC_Conspirator]

Big cities would rule everyone else through a tyranny of the majority and vote fraud. Almost no one outside a major population center would have any say in government and would have their votes nullified or diminished. Politics would be run by fringe and dangerous candidates leading to dire consequences.

Very bad idea.

[KC_Conspirator]

That is a big pet peeve of mine as well.

[dalereed]

This is a Constitutional Republic where the minority is protected from the majority and the primary reason for the Electoral College and when I was in school 50-60 years ago I was taught that democracy was equivalent to a dirty word.

Not only should we maintain the Electoral College but we should repeal the 16th amendment.

[Salvey]

The campaigns would center on a handful of high-population states. Very, very bad idea.

[Paleo Conservative]

What about the 17th and 19th?

[atomicpossum]

John Sperling is a jackass. Let his 'metro' world try to get along without the 'retro' one. They'll starve. They will lack many products that are produced outside the high-tax environment of the 'metro' world.

And, since the 'retro' world would have to sign away the only mechanism that keeps them from being choked off by the 'metro' interests, it'll never happen. Iowa and the like will not support the Constitutional Amendment that would be required to do away with the Electoral College. VS.

[Clemenza]

Pure Democracy= A sheep and two wolves voting on what's for dinner.

I thank the founding fathers for NOT making us a pure Democracy, so that the "Boobouisie" doesn't vote our rights away.

[dalereed]

"What about the 17th and 19th?"

We would be far better off if all of them after the 10th were voided.

[Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok]

The electoral college is a protective wall that protects us from "mob" rule. I don't extremists from either coast ruling me. I'm glad the the US is a republic that strives to represent everyone, unlike a pure democracy where a few population centers could dictate everything to the rest of us.

The second wall of protection we have is the SECOND AMENDMENT. Thankfully it'd the "retros" not the "metros" who embrace this. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is a protection from tyranny.

[mississippi red-neck]

Should We Abandon the Electoral College?

Speaking from my little seven acres in the south.....No!

We should abandon, New York, LA, San Francisco, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, United Nations, Yasshar Arafat, France, Democractic Party Bill& Hillary, Jimmy Carter,______ ______ _______ _______ Etc. fill in the blanks.

[longtermmemmory]

With some states spliting their electoral college votes, we should figure a way of making them put it back to the origial for federal elections.

[CAPTAIN PHOTON]

The electoral college is an idea whose idea has come and gone...one man. one vote. Ok, so the folks in missouri and Ohio will see lots of Bush/Kerry...the folks in NY, Texas,
California are written off.

Don't you find it strange that the Dems, who lost the election because of this archaic farce, aren't asking for an amendment to get rid of it?

[okie01]

The Electoral College is a firebreak around states with high rates of vote fraud. Keep it.

The best argument ever for the Electoral College:

Without it, Algore would be President!

[Melas]

A pure democracy is something else entirely.

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

The further we drift from the United States Constitution, the worst our country gets.

The Electoral College was put in place by the Founding Fathers of this nation. The Founding Fathers knew better than any politician today. We had best leave the Electoral College as it is.

[SAJ]

Splitting electoral votes, as Maine and Nebraska do, and as Colorado citizens are considering (not TOO seriously, I trust), is the absolutely most stupid thing a state can do. Such a policy has the potential to reduce a state's electoral influence from X votes down to just 1 or 2, conceivably even zero, depending upon how the apportionment is to be accomplished.

Of course, it's relatively advantageous to the OTHER states....heh heh heh.