What Would Happen if the Electoral College Was Eliminated?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the Electoral College. Democrats and progressives are pressing to eliminate the Electoral College and are coming at it on several fronts. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) characterizes it as “affirmative action” for farmers (particularly in fly-over country of the Midwest), and Chris Hayes at MSNBC suggested that it would be unconstitutional and said that conservatism is a “deeply paranoid and pessimistic” movement that is “retreating behind counter-majoritarian institutions.” Others say that Republicans and conservatives do not truly understand the Constitution. It appears to me that AOC, Hayes, and other Democrats and progressives are the ones who do not understand the Constitution or the reason why the Founders created the Electoral College in the first place.


            Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) was more than happy to be their teacher. He prepared a video to teach such people what the Electoral College is and why it was created, and he did so in a calm, mild, non-aggressive manner. He explained that the difference between Democrats and Republicans is in their name. Republicans want to protect the republic, and Democrats desire more democracy. This desire for more democracy is in their push to eliminate the Electoral College.


            Crenshaw explains that republics are more stable than democracies and that a republic represents a bigger portion of the country. He says that the Founding Fathers wanted a republic because they wanted the checks and balances between the three branches of government and between the federal government and the states. Because of the checks and balances, it is difficult to “ram through sweeping policies that affect the entirety of the country.” Because the Senate and the Electoral College are based on equal representation, it means that “smaller and more rural states have a voice in the Congress and in electing our president. We think that it pretty important.”


            Crenshaw says that Democrats are “pushing for a more pure form of democracy” because they want more control in Washington. They want the president to be elected in a popularity contest. Crenshaw says that if the Electoral College was eliminated, “51 percent of the population could tell the other 49 percent of the country what to do even if that 51 percent is concentrated in the most populated states.” 


            According to Crenshaw, progressives want to make progress as fast as possible, and checks and balances, states’ rights, and balance in government get in the way of their progress. If municipalities and states have the power to make their own policies, they get in the way of the centralized control that progressives want. He says that rule by the majority means tyranny of the majority. Such a situation creates “a society that is divided, angry, and resentful.”


            The Founders created the Electoral College for the purpose of giving each state equal representation in choosing the president and vice president. The smaller states would have never ratified the Constitution without the equal representation in the Senate and in the Electoral College.