The Electoral College has failed on all fronts and deserves to be retired.
Procedurally, the college was designed to prevent a demagogue-like candidate from winning the presidency by inciting the passions of his constituents. Cooler heads in the Electoral College were supposed to prevail. Instead, we have a demagogue-like president who won office by inciting the passion of his constituents, and through the exact mechanism that was supposed to prevent this from happening.
The Electoral College was also intended to prevent foreign powers from exerting influence on our elections. We now have a president publicly inviting foreign countries to meddle in our elections, and to investigate his political opponents.
The college was also supposed to ensure small states would have their political voice heard on the national stage, but current presidential races are determined by a handful of swing states. Small states (and to a degree, even large states) are irrelevant in today’s implementation of the Electoral College.
Procedures aside, the college needs to be retired because it is ethically outdated. While conservative popular thought holds that the college is necessary to preserve traditional, rural, “heartland” values, traditional values do not accurately reflect a technological, urban and racially diverse society. To give one person, or group, greater political representation regardless is ethically bankrupt and runs counter to democracy, equality and logic.
Tom SluisDurango
