The Rise of Democracy, and the Fall of the Electoral College

The progressive era, fueled by the Fabians, worked to take away more of the voice of the States, and move America towards pure democracy

The Rise of Democracy, and the Fall of the Electoral College

James Madison wrote five times in his essays of the Federalist Papers that we are a republic, and then explained what a republic is.  He believed this to be necessary not only so that the Constitution may be properly understood, but because in their argument against the Constitution, the statists of the era were trying to convince the people that a republic, and a democracy, are the same thing.  Democracy, in reality, is a transitional form of government, one that would lead America from being a republic to an oppressive oligarchy, argued many of the Founding Fathers.  We must never be a democracy.

We are not a democracy, and we were never intended to be a democracy.  The Framers of the Constitution, and those that supported the Constitution, warned against the United States being a democracy, and put mechanisms in the Constitution to protect us from becoming a democracy.

John Adams was quoted to say, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

Thomas Jefferson said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

The Founders are not the only historical figures to recognize that a democracy opposes liberty, and leads to bigger government steeped in statist rule.

Karl Marx once said, “Democracy is the road to socialism.”

Karl Marx, the father of communism, understood that the implementation of a democracy is a necessary step in the process of destroying our Constitutional Republic. Once the people are fooled to believe that they can receive gifts from the treasury rather than achieve for their livelihood through their individual aspirations, they will continually vote in the people who ensure the entitlements continue to flow. Eventually, this mindset becomes the majority. This group of government dependents then changes over time from an involved and informed electorate to a populace who lacks the understanding of the principles of liberty and can easily be manipulated into believing that sacrificing individual liberty in exchange for social justice, artificial security, and gifts from the treasury is a price that we must be willing to pay. A group dependent upon the government in such a manner, then, is primed to vote into power a potential tyranny.



Democracy is the road to socialism: Eliminating the Electoral College, for example, would enable such a transition

Eliminating the Electoral College, for example, would enable such a transition.  Progressives are currently calling for only the popular vote being considered in presidential elections, which would make it easier for these members of our society to vote into office those who promise more entitlements, while eliminating the voice of the minority States, ensuring that the President would be elected by the seven largest metropolitan areas in the country, and that the voice of the rural areas would be silenced.

We are becoming an entitlement society driven to vote only for those willing to increase the hand-outs from the central government.  Once the majority of the voters in a system, more specifically in a democracy, becomes the recipient of benefits from the central government, the government achieves unchecked power, and may then violate the property rights of the productive members of society in order to provide benefits to the non-productive members of society. This is best characterized in the “tax the rich,” or “redistribution of wealth,” scheme we are now seeing emerge as the rallying cry by statists in government call for “social justice,” and for the wealthy to “pay their fair share.”  The strategy is nothing new.  We also saw these same tactics in communist countries before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and they are still in place in a majority of the countries in the world.  Unfortunately this kind of tyranny is the norm in history.  Liberty is the exception.  And the Early Americans were well aware of this kind of “utopianism.”  Samuel Adams called the socialist tactics of redistribution of wealth “schemes of leveling.”

The delegates in the federal convention of 1787 were aware of the dangers of collectivism, which is why they established our system of government, and the Electoral College, in the manner they did. A true democracy becomes mob rule, and the principles of liberty become a target for elimination, therefore, to survive, our system had to be a republic.

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” —Thomas Jefferson

In order to preserve our Constitutional Republic it was imperative for the vote of the people not to be purely democratic across the board.  The voice of the people, the House of Representatives, has always been achieved through a direct vote, and a direct vote is fine for State and local representation, but beyond that, the Founding Fathers determined that dividing power as much as possible, including the power of the vote, was necessary to protect the Blessings of Liberty.

With the Electoral College the State legislatures originally appointed the electors who cast their votes in the Presidential Election. That changed in 1824 when all but six states decided the electors should to vote in line with the popular vote of the State.

Like electors, U.S. Senators were also initially appointed by the State legislatures, which ensured the voice of the States was present in the federal government. That changed in 1913 with the 17th Amendment, which transferred the vote for U.S. Senators to the popular vote. The 17th Amendment took away from the States their representation in the federal government.

The Electoral College, and the appointment of Senators prior to the inclusion of the 17th Amendment in the United States Constitution, are examples of an “indirect vote” by the people.

The Framers of the Constitution divided the voting power as they did partially because if the power to vote for President, the House, and the Senate all fell directly to the people, and if the people were fooled by some political ideology that wished to destroy the Republic by fundamentally transforming the American System, a tyranny could be easily voted into control of all parts of the government without any checks and balances present whatsoever to protect the republic from such a coup. When a majority of voters are uninformed, on the government dole, and are given the full and direct voting power, tyranny is inevitable.

Winston Churchill: ‘The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”

Winston Churchill understood the dangers of trusting an uninformed electorate with the capacity to govern. He was quoted as saying, “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”

The elimination of the Electoral College would take away the voice of the smaller States, give the election of the President to the seven largest metropolitan centers in the United States, and lead America even closer to becoming a pure democracy.  The transition to democracy is destined, if allowed to continue, to lead the United States to a collapse within that would rival the historical collapse of other great civilizations that followed the same path to democracy, oligarchy, and tyranny.

Democracy is a transitional governmental system.  Democracy is unable to sustain itself and always leads to becoming an oligarchy like socialism, fascism, or a totalitarian system. This was true in the days of the Greek States, the Roman Empire, and the French Revolution no less than it is true today.

“While democracy lasts it becomes more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy…Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams

“Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” — James Bovard

My friend, Tim “Loki” Kerlin, used to say, “A Republic is two wolves voting on what to have for dinner, and a well-armed sheep contesting the vote and making sure that no one is on the menu.”

Our country is not a democracy, nor was it ever intended to be. Our nation was founded as a constitutionally limited republic. The indirect election of the President through the Electoral College reflects that truth, and the Electoral College is one of the last vestiges of the system of checks and balances as they apply to the voters.

A limited government is the essence of liberty, and those limitations must be in place across the board, including the electorate.

In the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 4, the text indicates that the Congress may determine the time and day the Electors are chosen, and give their votes. The day they vote for President and Vice President, according to this clause, will be the same day nationally. This is a part of the establishment of the Electoral College (The name “Electoral College” did not develop until the 1800s).  The rules for the election, according to Article I of the Constitution, are to be established by the State legislatures.

Statists were calling for democracy from the start, because they knew that democracy would enable them to circumvent the Constitution, and expand the size of the federal government. The followers of Alexander Hamilton called for a more intrusive government, and Chief Justice John Marshall used his position on the Supreme Court to push the idea of federal supremacy.  Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, as much as I appreciate what his economic policies were, and his love of the Constitution, was a supporter of a pure democracy, and actually campaigned on election reform that would include eliminating electors and, ultimately, the Electoral College.  This is why he is considered the father of the Democrat Party.  It was under his presidency that the party of Jefferson shifted gears, moved towards promoting democracy, and eliminated the “republican” part of their name, and became solely the “Democratic Party.”

Under Abraham Lincoln, largely due to the attitudes of the time period that circled around the necessity of holding together the union, the powers of the federal government increased even more.  Then, after Reconstruction, after a failure to force the federal government into the business of the States by political means, largely guided by John Bingham’s “Equal Protection Clause” in the 14th Amendment, the courts took up the fight, beginning with the Slaughterhouse Cases, in their attempt to use court rulings to circumvent constitutional authorities and enable the “Incorporation of the Bill of Rights” against the States.

The progressive era, fueled by the Fabians, worked to take away more of the voice of the States, and move America towards pure democracy.  During the presidency of ultra-progressive Woodrow Wilson, the 17th Amendment eliminated the State’s voice from Congress, and changed the vote for U.S. Senators from State appointment to a purely democratic direct vote by the people.  Now, all the statists need is to drive the final nail into the coffin of our republic.  That final nail is their push to eliminate the Electoral College.  If the leftists succeed, the United States will lose the last piece of its heritage as a republic.  The courts, and the politicians, are already colluding against the republic, and with the loss of the Electoral College, the voice of the States, and those who are not dependent upon the government’s gifts from the treasury, will be lost forever. . . or at least until another revolution returns us to liberty.


By Douglas V. Gibbs