http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2012/11/the-electoral-college-how-to-defend/ The Tenther Grapevine Mon, 20 May 2013 00:37:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2012/11/the-electoral-college-how-to-defend/#comment-18038 dmellon Sat, 03 Nov 2012 14:47:30 +0000 http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/?p=13382#comment-18038 We can defend the electoral college the same way our founders did.  James Madison in Federalist #10 explains why we have a federal system of government rather than a democracy.  He says in this famous paper that the primary reason is that in a federal system the rights of minorities are protected from the will of organized majorities intent on passing legislation injurious to the liberty of the minority or detrimental to the good of the country.  
 
Here is a quote from #10, “Hence it is, that such Democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives, as they have been violent in their deaths”. 
 
 An example of how the electoral college helps protect the rights of minorities can be seen in Ohio and West Virginia where coal miners, a small minority relative to the entire country, possibly have a considerable influence in the selection of the president.
 
Reducing our presidential vote to popularity only would mean all electioneering would be done on the coasts and large cities and interests of farmers and others living in the less populated areas of the country would be ignored.  Is it not obvious this would further divide our country and soon lead to chaos?

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