Farmers get a say in who the president is, too.
FILE – Staff members hold the certification of Electoral College votes from Tennessee during a joint session of the House and Senate to confirm Electoral College votes at the Capitol, early Jan 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
A conference this week had me traveling in Missouri. I landed at Kansas City and drove three hours through some beautiful farmland to Lake of the Ozarks. When I returned, I found waiting for me a book bearing the title, “Every Vote Equal – A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by Popular Vote.” (If you’re in this business, authors and their agents are always sending you books.)
A drive through Missouri farmland and a book on abolishing the Electoral College actually tie together. Work with me and I’ll explain how.
I arrived early Sunday morning to begin a drive that passed through countless farm communities. It seemed like they each had two things in common. One was a white-steepled church straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. And the other was a Donald Trump yard sign seemingly everywhere you looked.
And it hit me that, a.) these people work from dawn to dusk making sure that my family and I get enough to eat; and, b.) they pretty much all go to church on Sunday; and, c.) well-manicured white liberals who live on the coasts and who work in government, politics, media and entertainment look down their noses upon them.
When I got back to the office, I found this 1,216-page tome advocating the elimination of the Electoral College.
Each time the subject of abolishing the Electoral College comes up – which is to say every presidential election year – it reveals anew that many nominally well-educated Americans don’t fully grasp that our nation is a union of sovereign states. Thus, they can’t appreciate the fact that the citizens don’t elect the president, the states do.
When drafting our Constitution, the founders feared two things. First, was an overly powerful federal government. Almost every argument at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 was about giving the federal government the power to be effective without giving it so much power as to nullify the sovereignty of the states.
The other thing they feared was factionalism. They feared anything that could have the effect of pitting the states against each other. They were prescient enough to understand that for the nation to flourish, the bankers of Pennsylvania were going to need the farmers of the Carolinas.
Thus, they decided that for a candidate to be elected president, he would need more than majority popular support. He would need majority popular support in a majority of the states. To be president, you can’t just win votes. You have to win the country.
To bring this about, each state is represented by a slate of electors in the Electoral College. Early in our history, those electors were appointed by state legislatures. Today in all 50 states, electors are chosen by popular vote.
The founders were exceptionally farsighted in establishing the Electoral College. But for the Electoral College, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 margin of victory in California alone would have decided the election.
Where would that have left those farmers whose communities I passed in Missouri? The answer is, functionally disenfranchised – and likely a lot less interested in feeding us.
Love this article Paul and it couldn’t have come at a better time. A few months ago, we too took a vacation to Missouri and I too saw the beautiful farms you mentioned. We are now in Virginia after spending a week in West Virginia and we saw beautiful farms everywhere and all along the way we saw Trump signs, Trump banners and Trump stores and even a building covered with a picture of him, then I saw this two story building with a small Harris Walz sign in the window. When we headed to the next town we saw a beautiful old mill no longer in use but still was beautiful so we pulled off in what used to be a park a couple of years ago to take a picture. I felt right at home because in front of where I parked was a sign that said, “Republicans Only!!!” When we left West Virginia we headed to Maryland and started seeing beautiful farms again. I expected to start seeing Harris Walz signs but for miles, all we saw were Trump Vance signs. Not until we pulled off in Cumberland did I see any Harris Walz signs. Today went through Winchester Va and I got disappointed when I saw Harris Walz signs everywhere, then I cheered up when we came to a house wrapped in Trump Vance signs, flags, you name it, the house, the fence in front, was covered. What added to the enjoyment of our trip was the fact that I have the KTBB app and I was able to listen through my bluetooth hearing aids to your great station everywhere we went with you and all your great shows with true patriots talking about our great country and like this You Tell Me Texas I thought about how many people don’t understand why we have the Electoral College. That’s why I think Civics should be a mandatory subject in every school in America. It’s said so many people don’t understand how our government operates.
So if a candidate could somehow win the majority of votes in just 12 states (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, and Virginia), they would be awarded 281 electoral votes. Are you saying they still wouldn’t win the presidency because they didn’t win a “majority of the states”?
In that unlikely scenario, yes, the candidate would win the presidency. I say unlikely because there is next to no chance that a virtual sweep of the east coast, the upper midwest, California and Texas would leave every other state in the other column. Any candidate who can win essentially all of the high-count electoral states is going to bring a bunch of other states along with him.
It is amazing to me just how far sighted our forefathers were the more I read about what was more important to them. They had been under English rule and saw how it was choking the life out of them. Taxing was out of control, which lead up to the Boston Tea Party. So many Patriots lost their lives to see that this Country they called America could prosper and be free to live their lives the way they wanted to. There is a painting of General George Washington on his knee in the wilderness praying that actually makes me tear up when I see it. That painting of him praying says so much that words could not. We would not be in this Country which was founded upon their faith in GOD ALMIGHTY. It was their FAITH that was a part of everything they did to free this nation from English rule and make sure the documents they put to words were the RIGHT words that would last.
Our CONSTITUTION has lasted as long as it has because it was inspired by a people of faith with a vision that we will never have. Thankfully I was born at a time where Faith was still strong, but along the way, we got lost with all the distractions of the modern era and people who were guided by the almighty dollar. These people took prayer out of schools to please an atheist. Not only that but to take God out little by little in our lives. Lately, in the last three to four years, I have seen a revival of faith coming back. I know that President George Washington is looking down upon us with the starting of a smile on his face. For President Washington saw things that we more than likely never see in our lifetime because of the CONSTITUTION these people who went through hell to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Believe I was in 8th grade when Civics was discussed about it being taken out of the classes taught. The next year when I was in the 9h grade it was removed. When you dumb down the next generation, it makes it easier to remove other things.
There has been talk through the years of getting rid of the electoral college. We need to educate those who will be voting in the next few years to make them aware of the vision those who sat down and drew up this wonderful CONSTITUTION with the vision that has held it in place for well over 200 years!
Excellent article explaining two exceptionally important aspects of our everyday lives. It is painfully clear our education system has failed us miserably. We need to go back to teaching the 3 R’s and Civics. Interesting how no one I know, takes a hard look at the success of the Boomers who went to school after Labor Day, had time off for major holidays, and got out of school before May 31. We did a pretty darn good job of moving forward and progressing to the future. Look at what we have now; it is amazing at the pure ignorance and pettiness out there. Never mind being slaves of machines that take away our ability to count change at any cash register across the nation or us common sense to solve basic problems around the home. We have lost much to this lazy society.