Popular or Plural

It is with much amusement that I read that Hillary Clinton won the “popular vote”. As has been dutifully pointed out by those with formal education in such matters what she actually won was a plurality.

None of this matters to the “college educated” liberal. Their point is and rightfully so that she won more votes than anyone else. Fortunately the race for the Presidency is not a race for Prom Queen.

What they overlook is that there were five candidates in the race. Hillary won 48.2%, Trump with 46.1%, Gary Johnson garnered 3.3%, Jill Stein managed 1% and Evan McMullin gathered .4%. Without question Hillary won more votes than any other candidate. No one won a majority.

However, democracies aren’t built on who gets the most votes but on who gets a majority. Had Hillary received 30% but still outstripped her competitors would the Democratic argument that the system is flawed and she was robbed still ring true? At best a fair-minded individual would agree that a runoff is called for. Our Founding Fathers considered that possibility and crafted a solution.

Abolish The Electoral College

This brings us to the Electoral College. It seems that anytime a tenet of the Constitution does not favor the liberal camp they deride it as “outdated”. Apparently American History was not a popular elective among our college educated liberal friends.

America is not a Democracy, it was founded as a Constitutional Republic. The Constitution clearly says the Federal Government only has those powers enumerated to it in the Constitution and all others remain with the States.

The operative term here is States. We are not the United People we are the United States. Our Founding Fathers were clearly concerned that some states would be more populous than others and could dominate the Federal Government.

Their solution was two-fold. The Congress consists of two houses. The Senate apportions two Senators per state assuring equality among the states and the House of Representatives apportions Representatives based on population providing equality across the population. The Electoral College is equal to the number of Senators plus the number of Congressmen plus three additional Electors for the District of Columbia.

Rules regarding how those Electors are awarded are set by the States. Currently forty-eight states award Electors on a winner take all basis. These rules can be changed but not after the fact. If the Democratic Party is concerned about the fairness of the current system they have the right to work within it to make changes.

What history shows us is that the Democrats were fine with the status quo when it worked in their favor. It only became unfair when they lost. I would caution them about rushing into changes headlong. Much like Harry Reid’s experiment with the “Nuclear Option” these things can come back to haunt you.