The Electoral College and Limited Government
The Framers devised an electoral system that hoped to entrust the responsibility to people whose choice would be unaffected by partisan politics to elect the president.
The Electoral College
Occasionally, we hear the mantra from people who scorn the Founders for creating the Electoral College within the framework of the Constitution. 1 They will say that the “Founders must have thought that the people were stupid.” A question for these educated people—please show us where the Founders called the people stupid? There is a simple rule for this exercise—the information shall not come from revisionist “history” books but original writings.
The above fake notion by the Founders would be more applicable today because of the (mis)education and media programming systems. In many schools, particularly public institutions, it is anything but education. Also, see Frederick R. Smith Speakes’ Nauseating NEA and Stinky Socialist Schools.
There were various reasons why the Founders did not want a direct election of the president and the Senate (17th Amendment resulted in the direct election of senators). As previously presented in Frederick R. Smith Speaks, The Constitution Clarified, too much democracy or direct democracy can be a problem. We are a Republic, 2 or more precisely a mixed government, despite the repeated dose of “democracy” day in and day out from the media, politicians, and academia. Also, see Frederick R. Smith Speakes, Madness Made to Order - Part Four (Dumbocracy).
The Framers devised an electoral system that entrusted the responsibility to people whose choice would be unaffected by partisan politics to elect the president. The Constitutional Convention got its inspiration to adopt an Electoral College from Charles Carrollton of Carrollton. 3 Like James Madison, Carrollton admired Charles Louis Joseph de Secondat, the Baron of Montesquieu of France (1689 – 1755), who was the best-known for his The Spirit of Laws. Montesquieu’s concept of a mixed form of government found its way into Maryland’s government by Carrollton and later during Constitutional Convention. Also, see Frederick R. Smith Speakes The Debate on the Constitution.
Due to the lack of modern communications, the Electoral College consisted of people who were well versed in the status of candidates. Initially, electors voted for two candidates without specifying whom they preferred for president and vice president. The candidate receiving the most significant number of electoral votes would be president, and the candidate winning the second largest number of votes would be vice president.
As a result of the party bitterness during the 1800-1801 election, which resulted in a tie vote between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, the 12th Amendment (1804) supported separate electoral ballots for president and vice president. In 1887, the states received almost exclusive power to resolve all controversies about the choice of presidential electors.
Each state has several electors equal to the total number of senators and representatives it sends to the Congress of the United States. Today, the citizens vote for the electors who then cast their vote for the president. Therefore, it is essential for every person eligible to vote to make it to the voting booth. 4 The state parties appoint their slate of electors, and the party with the most electors chosen by the public then cast their vote as a block for president and vice president. A few states cast their electoral vote by congressional district (the party does not vote as state bock). Most importantly, the Electoral College prevents one populated area alone from swaying the votes and elect a president.
The first president to win the electoral vote without the popular vote was Benjamin Harrison (1889). The current slate of 538 electors cast their vote on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following a presidential election. Congress counts the ballots at the end of the first week in January. There have been only ten electors who did not vote according to their party.
While a lack of modern communications was a factor during the nation’s birth, the Founders insisted on checks and balances. One method was to balance the power in the Federal Government (the three branches) and divide up the power among the states. The Electoral College prevents just a couple of states from electing a president. That holds today, but with severe usurpation of the entire system that the Founders gave us. 5 The balances and checks are tenuous. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, wrote:
The passions, therefore, not the reasons, of the public would sit in judgment. But it is the reason, alone, of the public, that ought to be controlled and regulated by the government. At present, the public mind is neither sufficiently cool nor sufficiently informed for so delicate an operation.
Limited Government
It is important to note that the Framers crafted the Constitution to prevent too powerful a government from imposing its will upon the citizens. It was not a “consensus” document, which is today’s fashionable method of brainwashing people to go along with something they would not otherwise accept. The “change agents” planted throughout society know all about consensus building! We all have heard some of their nice-sounding keywords, such as “partnerships.” 6 Also, see Frederick R. Smith Speakes Demented Delphi and Creepy Consensus.
Since that beautiful time of the Constitutional Convention, the Federal government has grown out of bounds from the original intent. As a result, the Founders are spinning in their graves. If they came back to life today, they would want to go back to the reign of King George III. Unfortunately, we have diverted away from the concept of limited government whereby the “system” shall fix every social ill and regulate the most significant part of every human activity.
Some have said that the Founding Fathers intentionally “set us up to fail.” Your author has yet to find such a “conspiracy” by reading any original writings. The bottom line—it is not the fault of the Founders. They had a deep understanding of the human condition, and their analysis of existing and past governments kept them from creating a new tyranny. Other revolutions (e.g., the atheistic French Revolution founded on the “goddess of reason”) led to collectivist utopian schemes resulting in the enslavement and murdering of millions.
The nation created by the Founders supplied a limited government that was the foundation for the most prosperous country in history. The hallmark of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is the eternal truth that individuals deserve to be free with self-imposed limits (morals, values, and principles). It is also unequivocally true that government outside the boundaries of the Constitution is the biggest threat to life, liberty, and property (the pursuit of happiness). Also, see Frederick R. Smith Speakes The Constitution: Property and Free Markets.
President George Washington, in his Farewell Address (1796), warns us of the dangers of political parties: 7
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
Washington’s prophecy has come true; money and political parties drive elections.
Cogent author and publisher, Frederick R. Smith
The Electoral College is not a higher learning system. It is a cadre of people who are well versed in the status of candidates. The state parties appoint their slate of electors.
Not to be confused with the crummy Republican Party. Likewise, we have an abundantly crummy Democratic Party.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737 – 1832) was an American Revolutionary leader and legislator who was a member of the Continental Congress (1776-1778), signed the Declaration of Independence (1776) and served as a U.S. senator (1789-1792). Despite severe restraints for simply being Catholic, Carroll was nonetheless instrumental in developing the political system for Maryland. He was a founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and was the last signer of the Declaration of Independence to die (age 95).
With Corona Doom, we have the brilliant imposition of mail-in ballots. Indeed this modern (cough, cough) system and no voter ID will ensure clean election results. Your author has an excellent deal; swampland for sale in Texas.
The mad machine tells us that the Electoral College is a bad thing, a vestigial remnant that has to go. Additional arrows in their quiver include the packing of the Supreme Court and converting DC and Puerto Rico into states. If successful, the reincarnated Illuminati shall get their way with the enthronement of a creepy collectivist one-party system just like the CCP.