Hillary Clinton became the fourth presidential candidate in US history to win the popular vote but lose the electoral college tally. She is preceded in this by Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, Grover Cleveland in 1888, and Al Gore in 2000. The shock of her loss to the untethered id that is Donald Trump continues to produce caterwauling and sky-is-falling hysteria from her supporters, a petition to urge electors pledged to Trump to vote for Clinton instead at the December 19th meeting where they formally cast their votes, and talk of doing away with the Electoral College system in favor of a direct majority-vote election for the Presidency.
Nope, no sore losers this time around. The petition, while asking for something that’s technically within the law, is akin to losing the Super Bowl 30-23 but claiming that, because your team racked up 307 total yards to the other team’s 300, you should be awarded the Vince Lombardi trophy. It ignores the fact that the national popular vote is NOT how we elect Presidents. It ignores the fact that, were the rules different, the teams would have played the game differently. It ignores the fact that people of the minority party in deep red and deep blue states might actually bother to vote if their votes counted. Would the outcome have been different? Would Clinton have won a popular-vote election?
It doesn’t matter. She lost, by the rules, and that’s that. Now, if you want to change the rules for the next election, that’s a different matter.
Before you do, though, let me suggest a little caution. The Democrats changed the Senate rules to get around the 60 vote supermajority requirement for confirming many Presidential appointments. Now that they’re in the minority in the Senate and lost the Presidency, they’re going to be on the “other side” of that rule change, and Trump’s picks are going to be confirmed that much more easily. Be careful about changing the rules to your benefit – nothing is forever, and there will come a day when those changes work against you.
Lets say you’re still convinced that the Presidency should be decided by a national popular vote, rather than by vote tallies in the individual states. Be honest – does your believe derive from principle, or from the presumption that your team would win more easily? Do you think that the Electoral College thwarts the will of the people and produces results that conflict with the Republic’s fundamentals, or do you not care for our system of government because it didn’t give you what you wanted?
I’ll wave off the latter choices, because there’s no arguing with petulant babies who only care about having their way. But, as to the former, consider this: If the nation truly backed your team, why is it that your team has been devastated by losses in Congress, the various governor’s mansions and the various state legislatures over the past 6 years?
In 2009, 29 Democrats were governors, the Democratic Party controlled 27 state legislatures in their entirety and had one of two houses in another 8. The Party had full control of 17 states and partial control of 23. Today, the Party has 15 governors, both houses in 18 legislatures, and full control (both houses + governor) of just 5 states. Since Obama’s first victory, the Party has lost over 900 legislative seats at the federal and state levels. Now, tell me why, exactly, you think that the Democratic Party is where the true will of the people resides?
The Electoral College is one of a number of mechanisms written into our federalist system government to prevent the excessive accrual of power to one person or body. We have a bicameral Congress at the federal level, three co-equal branches of government, and fifty states. One House of Congress is intended to be proportional representation of the voters, the other to be equal representation for each of the fifty States. The power residing within the States is intended to act both as a check against the excess of the Federal Government and as a measure by which people of different proclivities, needs and lifestyles can resist having each others’ wills imposed on them. The Electoral College is there for a reason.
If you are unhappy with this distribution and restriction of governmental power, ask if you really want to be subject to a government run by a single strong-man autocrat. Sure, you might get “your” autocrat in power, and I know many of you were quite upset that Obama couldn’t simply rule the country as he saw fit instead of being subject to Congress and the Supreme Court, but what happens when the “other” autocrat gets elected under your rule set? Bewail as loudly as you wish, the fact is that you still have a Congress (even though “your” team is in the minority) and still have a Court (even though “your” team is about to become a minority) in place to curb the excesses and wild whims of the new President. Their power to do so has been weakened by your departing President, who railed against the excesses of the Executive Branch when he was just a Senator running for the Presidency but who fully embrace and expanded executive power with his “pen and phone.”
If, despite all this, you still want the rules rewritten in your favor, just admit you don’t give a flying rat’s hoo-hah about your fellow Americans, unless they happen to agree with you. That all you care about is controlling the reins of power.
The system was created to protect the rest of us from the likes of you.
Still want to change it? You need 38 states to agree with you. Given how few are on your team at the moment, I don’t think your prospects are all that good.
One final note – and it goes to the mindset that led to a Trump presidency. The Left has been operating as if the people who disagree with its policy ideas are simply livestock that will grumble but accede to whatever is done to them. That is demonstrably not the case. The Left on the other side now, and is resisting the changes the Right is now contemplating. There’s talk of trying to get electors to “flip,” to disregard their pledges to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their states.
What do you think Trump’s supporters will do if you manage to convince enough electors to flip over? Do you think that they won’t be even angrier than you are? That such a happening will end in anything less than a full-blown Constitutional crisis, and possibly armed insurrection? Please, actually take the time to use those purportedly educated brains of yours. Nothing good will come of blowing the system up just because your candidate lost.
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