Why Don’t WE Vote for President Directly?

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

We are not out of the wood yet in this strange and terrifying election process. While the U.S. Supreme Court shot down any hope the Trump administration might have had in overturning the election through the court, there is still the whole arcane electoral college election process to go through between now and December 23rd. Very few of us are familiar with the process largely because it has never been tested to any significant extent.

 

I want to know what dangers or weaknesses the Electoral College process might have as these could be the focus of the ongoing effort to nullify Joseph Biden’s election victory. My first question is why do we have this system of indirect voting for President in the first place. I’ve been doing some reading and want to share what I see so far. What I’ve found so far seems to reveal an uncanny parallel to present times. Now, I am not a historian so I will submit any corrections from historians who may read this.  

 

When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, democracy was a first-of-its-kind experiment. There was no way to know for certain that such a new and untested system could be sustained by the popular vote. Leaders of the day were leery that the uneducated electorate of that time could fall under the spell of a charismatic tyrant intent on becoming king. Thomas Jefferson was so concerned about the threat of an uneducated populace that he proposed establishing a system of public education, a suggestion that would not be fully realized for another 137 years. The founders understood that our government, any democratic government,  must be led by the brightest, most virtuous leaders who were loyal to the constitution and the cause of democracy. To ensure this outcome they opted for an indirect method to elect the President and Vice President, one in which men with an education would serve as a buffer against a popular vote outcome that is corrupted by an unscrupulous man taking advantage of the uneducated masses.  

 

We don’t have uneducated masses of citizens these days. What we do have is a strong parallel. We have a very large and growing minority of misinformed citizens deliberately subjected to coordinated disinformation campaigns on right-wing alternative media. They are being led by an arguably charismatic, authoritarian style leader who has subverted all democratic norms and institutions to tighten his grip on power. But after 224 years of democratic rule, the “charismatic tyrant” the founder feared fell short of winning the popular vote… twice. The majority of citizens rose to the existential threat to our system of majority rule and won the election for Joe Biden by an insurmountable number of votes. And now the checks and balances put in place by our founders may themselves be co-opted to install a losing candidate to power.

 

What should we expect next in the ongoing efforts of Donald Trump to overturn the popular will and install himself as a king, and how can we stop him?