MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnell made mince meat of the Electoral College as he shows how its undemocratic nature allows it to steal elections.
O’Donnell decimates the founder’s undemocratic nature.
Recently I have been taking a lot of flak for highlighting the purposefully undemocratic nature of the Constitution. The objections were of two kinds. The first is that the Constitution isn’t flawed and that Conservatives are misusing its tenants. The second is that pointing out its defects is almost sacrilegious and would discourage our base from even coming out to vote.
I reject both arguments. Understanding the defects of the Constitution that Republicans exploit allows us to enlighten those who believe in democracy to vote in large numbers to overcome them and subsequently fix them.
I pointed out in a recent article the inconvenient truth about the Constitution.
The document was never a bastion of democracy as it made small state citizens’ votes more powerful than populous states’ citizens. It also made the election of a president fairly undemocratic. Our current Supreme Court is comprised of Conservative Justices appointed by presidents who did not win the votes of most Americans. Their appointments were constitutional. Even their rulings were constitutional given the letter of the law.
It was refreshing to see Lawrence O’Donnell call out the founders for their apparent fear of democracy in his methodical manner. O’Donnell first lashed out at the Electoral College.
“The founders’ obsession to avoid all things British in government led them to the creation of the most grotesque institution ever imposed on a so-called democracy, the Electoral College,” O’Donnell said. “The only reason to worry about the fairness of the next presidential election is the Electoral College. Without the Electoral College, no problem.”
He then enumerated the founders’ other antidemocratic constitutional deeds.
“The Electoral College is one of the founders’ many crimes against democracy,” O’Donnell continued. “Other crimes against democracy by the founders include two senators per state, not allowing anyone other than a small percentage of white men to vote, and not allowing anyone to vote for United States senators. The founders were experimenters in democracy, not true believers in democracy. They were dabblers in democracy. Many of their obstacles to democracy that they put in the Constitution have been removed. Women are now allowed to vote. Black people are allowed to vote. Everyone now at least has the right to vote — the theoretical right to vote — while Republicans continue to try to make that right more difficult to exercise.”
O’Donnell then returns to the Electoral College and notes Republicans’ exploitation of the constitutional flaw to institute minority rule by a party incapable of winning the vote of most Americans.
“But the unmovable roadblock to democracy in our presidential elections is the Electoral College, something that does not exist in any other country on the planet,” O’Donnell said. Republicans have completely given up the hope of ever winning more votes for president than the democratic candidate. It’s been 18 years since the Republican candidate for president won more votes than the Democratic candidate for president.”
We must use articles like these to enlighten Americans about the dangers that the defects in our Constitution can cause to usurp our power and democracy. We must deliver it with the urgency that entices Progressives and allies to the polls. More importantly, it should encourage support for the drastic moves that we must take to correct these aberrations.
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