Warren (and Friends) Support Eliminating the Electoral College. Why This is Wrong-Headed.

By Mike Huckabee Published on March 19, 2019

Continuing our theme that being “progressive” means constantly looking backwards (digging up every bad idea from the past, from socialism to anti-Semitism to non-PC Twitter jokes to measles), Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the latest Democrat to try to rerun Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election campaign by calling for the elimination of the Electoral College. 

America is Not a Pure Democracy … for Good Reason

Many Democrats are still whining about Trump’s presidency not being “legitimate” because he didn’t win the popular vote, which is irrelevant. If it had been a popular vote election, both candidates would have run completely different campaigns aimed at turnout. They say this is an affront to democracy, but America is not a pure democracy.  The Founders feared the tyranny of the majority and created a Constitutional republic for good reason, so that any candidate would have to win broad support across the nation, not just in a handful of heavily-populated cities.

Some dismiss this as putting “geography” ahead of people, but it’s actually protecting people. People in farming or ranching states shouldn’t be steamrolled by voters 1,000 miles away who have no understanding or concern about their lives and interests. If you want to see what a national popular vote election would be like, ask a conservative farmer in California or Colorado how well he feels his state government represents him now.   

Hillary was done in by a number of factors, not least of which was her decision to ignore the problems of voters in Rust Belt states.  So they voted for the candidate who actually came there and addressed their concerns (Trump), which is exactly as the Founders intended.

Even Snopes.com had to grudgingly admit that without the heavy left wing turnout in California, Hillary’s “popular vote majority” would have vanished. 

We’ve Heard This Argument Before

One of the benefits of being my age is that you’ve lived long enough to have seen people argue over the same issue from both sides of their mouths.  For instance, when I say that if Democrats win the next election by Electoral votes but lose the popular vote, they’ll suddenly start voicing deep respect for the Electoral system, it’s not just guesswork.  I remember the 2000 election, where Al Gore (when he thought he might win the Electoral but not the popular vote) piously warned that “this is not a popularity contest.”  After he lost the Electoral vote but barely won the popular vote, suddenly, it was a popularity contest.  Too bad for the Democrats it wasn’t a hypocrisy contest. 

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Trivia note: Trump is actually the fifth President who took office without winning the popular vote.  The way “progressives” are so focused on refighting every battle from the dim past, I expect them to soon start protesting that Rutherford B. Hayes was an “illegitimate” President and demanding that he be replaced in history books with his Democratic opponent, Samuel Tilden. 

 

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with Permission

 

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