The Washington Post on Sunday penned an editorial calling for the elimination of the Electoral College. According to the editorial board, it's time for America to be covered by the majority without the protections for the minority.
From the editorial (emphasis mine):
... The electoral college, whatever virtues it may have had for the Founding Fathers, is no longer tenable for American democracy.
We write this with full awareness of the challenges of adopting a new system, with respect for many of the people who continue to argue against a switch, and with awareness that any change may have unintended consequences. Right now, our presidential elections are conducted by 51 separate authorities, each with its own rules on registration, mail-in balloting and more. Each state counts its own ballots, and each decides when recounts are needed. All of that would have to change if the president were chosen based on the national vote count. Additionally, electoral college math induces candidates to pay attention to voters in some small states who might otherwise be ignored.
But why should Iowa’s biofuel lobby get more of a hearing than, say, California’s artichoke lobby? Small states already have disproportionate clout in our government because of the Senate, in which Wyoming’s fewer than 600,000 ?residents have as much representation as California’s 39.5 million. We see no particular reason voters in purple states such as Wisconsin should be valued more than voters in red states such as Mississippi or blue states such as Washington.
...
Americans are not going to be satisfied with leaders who have been rejected by a majority of voters, and they’re right not to be. It’s time to let the majority rule.
Without even trying, WaPo made the case for why the Electoral College is important. Our Founding Fathers worried about a majority rule without a protection for the minority. People in California and New York shouldn't matter more than those in Montana, Kentucky or Iowa. Those who live in "flyover" shouldn't have their voices squashed because they live in areas that are rural and not densely populated.
The reason the Electoral College is so important is because it makes smaller states, like Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Minnesota count. It means elected officials care about issues that are important to dairy farmers and manufacture workers. It means that they have to win the hearts and minds of people all across the country.
If the Electoral College was abolished and replaced with whatever the WaPo wants – something they aren't even sure of – then we would never hear about how banning fracking hurts people in Pennsylvania or manufacturing hubs are closing up shop in Ohio and Michigan. It would mean that the coastal elites control everything and Beltway insiders would have no reason to talk to normal everyday Americans who are trying to make an honest living.
The left wants to get rid of the Electoral College because it would make it easy for them to gain power and keep it. They wouldn't have to try and convince middle America to vote for their ridiculous leftist agenda. They would simply focus on going further left and pandering to their strongholds along the coast.
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