Home // March.16.2017 // Diana Kearney

The American noose

Last month, the Economist Intelligence Unit demoted the United States from "full" to "flawed democracy." This downgrade stems from the ascendancy of authoritarianism in the U.S. following Donald Trump’s upset election, and the concomitant erosion of trust that Americans place in their government. While Trump’s incompetence, impulsiveness and inability to tolerate criticism-which he interprets as "betrayal" - remain the immediate cause of our descent into chaos, the American public would do well to remember the underlying root of our dystopian reality: the Electoral College. A vestigial organ that has grown cancerous, this relic must be excised if the United States retains any hope of returning to a full and healthy democracy.

As originally conceived, the Electoral College’s purpose was well-advised. Concerned that the American public could get swept up in a wave of demagoguery and select a leader with "[t]alents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity" rather than intellect and sound judgment, Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist No. 68 advocated for a barrier to separate the general public’s will from the Presidency. This safeguard, known today as the Electoral College, would be created "to afford as little opportunity as possible to [the] tumult and disorder" that could result from the election of an unqualified but popular candidate, thereby avoiding "this evil . . . dreaded in the election of a [an incompetent] magistrate, who was to have so important [a position] as the President of the United States." Hamilton understood the seductive nature of celebrity. He likewise expressed hope that the Electoral College would hedge against foreign interference in U.S. elections: "These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally . . . [be] chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils." This too, he reasoned, called for the establishment of a body to filter out excessive foreign influence on an ill-informed American electorate.

In the 2016 Presidential election, both of Hamilton’s fears came to pass. Millions of Americans voted for a wholly unprepared, vulgar reality TV star that clawed his way to unthinkable heights with fear mongering and vitriol. His fraudulent business dealings, predatory sexual behavior, bankruptcies, and assaults on minorities ultimately proved immaterial. Americans found entertainment, it seems, preferable to the tedium of competence. The threat of foreign interference has likewise become a reality as Russian hackers cultivated a (non)-scandal to torpedo the only woman standing in the way of this regressive and isolationist leader. No one stands to gain more from the U.S. withdrawal from international affairs than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hamilton’s bulwark against humanity’s baser instincts and foreign meddling had failed spectacularly.

Indeed, in a twist reminiscent of Shakespearean tragedy, the Electoral College enabled this catastrophe: the faux-populist received a minority of the popular vote, but sailed to victory after securing a majority of the electoral votes. Far from embracing their intended constitutional role, the 538 American electors eschewed it. They welcomed a candidate who has, in Hamilton’s prescient words, "convulse[d] the community with . . extraordinary or violent movement" (and in the past few months, with increased violence of a racist nature). The Electoral College distorted equal voting rights and conferred "swing states" with unjustifiable influence over national elections. 94% of 2016’s Presidential campaign events took place in just twelve states. It is a wonder the other thirty-eight sit by idly as a minority of their neighbors deliberate their fate.

Appeals for the Electoral College’s banishment have flooded the election’s post-mortem discourse. Given Secretary Clinton’s 3 million vote rout of her opponent, such calls appear warranted; when viewed alongside Al Gore’s 2000 popular vote victory and electoral loss, such a change feels long overdue. And scholars predict that the distortion is only going to get worse. Any patriot with love for democratic values, whether liberal or conservative, should be only too glad to see it go.

Critics point out rightly that scraping the Electoral College is no easy task. It is true that this crusade will demand years of trench political warfare, with small and swing states jealously clutching their electoral advantages to their chests. But with so much stake, acknowledging that it will be difficult cannot justify apathy. Indeed, the only thing more scandalous than the world’s most powerful "democracy" crowning the election’s loser is the collective shrug that so many Americans offer in response. We cannot accept that surrendering power to a neophyte that most Americans rejected is part of our national DNA.

Fortunately, our democracy is not inexorably handcuffed to the Electoral College. Movements like the National Popular Vote, which push for each state to assign all of its electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, are attempting to circumvent the Electoral College’s suffocating grip on democracy. Senators can also introduce a constitutional amendment to banish the College altogether. Texas Representative Gene Green did just that in 2005, proposing the Every Vote Counts Amendment. Though the amendment ultimately failed, similar bills must be pursued again with vigor. This is not to gloss over the very real challenges we will face in returning to a "full democracy." Even with a willing Congress, the U.S. Constitution is notoriously difficult to amend. But Democrats and ethical Republicans alike must fight tooth and nail to release us from the suffocating effect that the Electoral College has on democracy. Regardless of the mechanics, it is imperative to our country’s survival as a democracy.

Progressives will no doubt spend the next four years putting out a series of fires, fighting against unconscionable edicts like the ban on Muslim refugees, the gutting of the Affordable Care Act, or the preposterous directive that for every one regulation added, two must be overturned. We can and should continue to contest each injustice. In the midst of these battles, however, we must never lose sight of the urgent need to repeal the Electoral College, and erase the anti-democratic stain that is becoming frighteningly familiar. Basic notions of fairness-and democracy-demand no less.

Banner graphic source: Photo (cropped) of Michele Felice Cornè’s somewhat ahistorical depiction (c.1803-1807) of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Photographed by the White House Historical Association. Currently located in the art collection of the White House in Washington, DC. Public domain.