It is very rare that I write two blogs in one day, but today is an exception due to the latest news regarding electing our next President. It seems that New Jersey has decided that its Electoral Votes will go to the candidate who wins the popular vote now. They are joining Maryland, so now 25 electoral votes will go to the candidate who wins the popular vote.
I have a serious problem with this notion. The author of our Constitution, James Madison, had structured our federal government in a manner to prevent democracy, or as he called it, tyranny of the majority. He also structured our original government to prevent tyranny of the minority. I may be speaking to chorus here, but the reason that the House of Representatives was voted on by the people was because they would represent the interests of the people. The Senate was originally picked by the state legislatures until the passage of the 17th amendment. This kept the legislation that was being passed to be vetted by both the majority and the minority. Furthermore, the Electoral College was established as a means to keep the Presidential election exactly what it is today: a popularity contest.
The Electoral College was originally just a group of citizens who were chosen by the state government equal to the number of Congressmen in that state. They were, however, not government workers or elected officials. They chose the President and the popular vote was largely ignored. Generally, the popular vote and the Electoral vote did not clash, although President John Adams did not win the popular vote and neither did George W. Bush.
The basis for this reasoning was that people would pick the candidate who they like rather then the candidate who they felt was best suited for the job. Since states are allowed to chose how they pick their Electors, over time they have just awarded all Electoral votes to the candidate who the popularity vote in their state.
But now there are some liberal states which are foolishly awarding their Electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote. It won't surprise me if several other states, primary left-wing oriented, do the same. The problem with this is that it is the further eroding of our founding fathers vision and defeats the whole purpose behind making our country a Republic.
In a Republic, the interests of the common man are addressed and he does have representation in government, but he does have total control. Essentially, if keep on operating the federal government with majority rule (aka mob rule) we will collapse because people are inherently selfish.
People don't more taxes but they want free stuff. Everywhere you go, no matter what culture you are in, you will find that people want free stuff and want to keep the money they make. Call it a natural law of human behavior. In a true democracy or representative democracy, you will see mob rule making sure that the majority gets its money from the minority. Right now in the United States, the rich are seeing their income be redistributed by force to the lazy. Sure, you could argue that the rich probably don't deserve it, but let me ask you this: why should the government be responsible for leveling the playing field in the first place? Government is force, a fundamental fact that the founders understood, and to use that force to say who gets what inevitably leads to the decay of civilization.
In a democracy, your morals and your property are managed by the will of the mob. And mobs can easily be manipulated by wicked people. Remember Absalom from the Old Testament? He did essentially that. He manipulated those who were discontented with their lives into following him in an effort to usurp King David. This is exactly what happens in a democracy, either direct or representative, and this is how the United States has operated for most of the 20th century.
I hope that my generation is able to change this and revert back to the Republic-style of government. It may not be fair, but it keeps mob rule and elite rule in check.