Posted on 04/08/2019 3:09:25 PM PDT by EdnaMode
As the presidential campaign heats up, so too has the movement to abolish or otherwise neutralize the electoral college.
Some advocates argue that the electoral college was originally established to help less-populated states retain power, or to have every part of the country heard from in electing a chief executive. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) claims the system was designed to help the slave states.
But these are modern interpretations of what really happened at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The electoral college was designed with two purposes: to separate the branches of government in an attempt to avoid “cabals” and to prevent foreign corruption. Some of the Founding Fathers assumed it would almost never actually elect a president. In other words, we could say the electoral college failed to achieve most of what the founders designed it to do.
The electoral college was not a replacement for direct election — because that possibility never received serious consideration at the convention. (Only two of 11 states voted for a popular election of the president.) As James Madison’s notes make clear, there was very little support for a popular election of the president. The original idea in his influential Virginia Plan was that the new bicameral legislature — Congress — would itself gather to elect the executive, and the convention repeatedly returned to that idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Which would give the Democrat just 15-16% of the total votes
Out of 3116 counties, Hillary won just 478 of them (if I recall my numbers correctly)
Exactly correct.
I believe there is an excellent chance of President Trump winning the popular vote in 2020.
The Genius Electoral College is working PRECISELY as it is supposed to work.
Those with no IQ cannot understand what that means, but it is the truth.
No MOB rule for the USA.
At the time of the founding, Virginia was the California of its time, nearly twice as populous as the next closest state. Yet many of the founders hailed from Virginia, and still managed to contrive the Electoral College.
Another light-weight wanting to sit at the big table.
Stalinists speak with forked tongue.
The Founding Fathers would view Universal Suffrage as a failure.
The electoral college was designed with two purposes: to separate the branches of government in an attempt to avoid “cabals” and to prevent foreign corruption.>> false premise straw man.
This is utterly nonsensical and completely devoid of reality, yet it was written and published in a major newspaper as authoritative. The Founders didn’t intend for it to actually elect a President? The very first President was elected by it and then re-elected. It was quickly amended not long after to prevent constant elections by the House - well within the lifetimes of these same Founders - quite an oddity if it was never meant to elect a President.
Right - it was designed to because the President of the United STATES was being elected by those STATES that were separate entities that joined together to form the national in a Union. It’s in the very name, yet they still don’t get it. This guy has no clue, yet I’m sure has plenty of extra letters sitting beside his name so he can make the claim he’s a so-called “expert.”
It is precisely what they were saying prior to the election when the polls at certain points in the race showed Trump with clear leads. The talking heads discussed it with the experts saying “Well, he’s doing well in the national popular vote, but his real problem is in the Electoral College, which he is not likely to win even if he wins the popular vote.” Heard this over and over again...and of course the possibility of such an outcome didn’t bother them in the least...it was how the system was set up to work. When the opposite occurred, they flipped like they had never made the previous comments and the EC had to go.
In fact, if you recall, they did the same thing back in 2000 - raising the possibility that Gore could win Florida while Bush wins the national popular vote as some polls were showing Bush with a clear national lead but with it too close to call in Florida. The Founders were brilliant. Then the opposite occurs and it becomes a travesty.
To simplify it, they’re just lying.
I agree with one exception. It was Lincoln who began the downfall of state’s rights. Before the War of Northern Aggression, folks said “The United States are” after the War, it became “The United States is”. Roosevelt surely put his stamp on it, but it began 70 years earlier.
Who is this twerp???
You are wrong
-PJ
It has been a resounding success.
It was not expected that the people at large would ever have much to do with the distant and mild mannered central government they anticipated, so there was no real need for the people to have to take a hand in its running.
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