Imagine if politics today were influenced by an antiquated and obsolete Amendment from 1789. Well, imagine no more. Our politics have been and continue to be influenced by the 23 Amendment – the Electoral College. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, the Electoral College is a process, not a place. In other words, it is a process established in the Constitution where both congress and qualified citizens vote for the President and Vice President. Electors are selected to represent each state accordingly. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors. To receive the winning vote, 270 of those members need to vote unanimously for either side of the dichotomy. The whole process can be summed up in the following: we as US citizens vote for our candidate (for example Trump or Hillary in this previous election) but instead our vote counts towards our candidate’s electors who then vote (or not) for our candidate. This extra step mutes the US people. This extra step gags the US people. This extra step silences and does not allow the US people to speak for themselves. The popular vote gives the people their voice. Therefore, we need to get rid of the archaic Electoral College and base our elections off the popular vote.
I think that we need to rid ourselves of the Electoral College because it is an outdated process that does not adequately represent the US people when voting for our next President and Vice President. Even though the Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers because they felt like this was the best method to vote for a President, we must take into consideration that this addition to the Constitution was created in 1789. This process might have made sense 229 years ago, but they do not make sense today as the reasons behind the Founding Fathers’ decision are no longer relevant. One large reason behind this decision was because back then people were unaware of politics, so a chosen electoral representative would make an educated decision over a citizen’s hunch vote. With our current technology, voters get access to proper information about politics, so voters can make educated decisions on their own. Another issue with the Electoral College’s original intent is that Alexander Hamilton pushed this Amendment because he felt like the electoral representatives were free of bias. That might have been the case then; however, those representatives are now selected by political parties and are expected to vote for that party that selected them. Another enormous issue that I have with this Constitutional amendment is that it was created to oppress women and former slaves, so their votes did not amount to much, or anything really. The Electoral College has a tainted history and we must rid ourselves of this atrocity.
Besides the consistent inadequacies of the Electoral College to keep up with modern times, the Electoral College also shows detrimental signs of ignoring the voices of the people. The fact that there are over 300 million people in the USA but only 538 of those people choose who the president will be is ridiculous. These inaccuracies in our political setup have occurred 2 since 2000. It occurred with George W. Bush and Al Gore. Al Gore received more popular votes but lost the electoral college, mostly due to Nadar “stealing” some of the votes. I say “stealing” because he was a third-party candidate who was not going to win but took in enough votes that would’ve gone to Gore, ultimately affecting Gore negatively in the election. It also occurred more recently, in 2016 with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Trump took in less popular votes but was able to win more swing states which added up and caused him to win.
As you can tell, the United States of America has missed out on multiple candidates who could’ve changed the landscape of our country in a positive manner. Just imagine it, Bill Clinton followed by Al Gore, followed by Barrack Obama, and finally followed by Hillary Clinton (or Bernie Sander). The United States of America could have had 4 Democratic presidents in a row rather than going back and forth between the dichotomy line in politics. One side does something, the other cancels it or vice versa, eliminating years’ worth of work to get something passed. One party spends, the other saves, one party invests in the military and foreign affairs, the other invests in social programs and the government. We know that Clinton was one of the most successful Presidents in history since he was the only one to provide an economic budget surplus during his tenure and we know everything that Obama was capable of, but what would Gore, and Hillary Clinton been capable of?
Al Gore was the Vice President for Bill Clinton and was the Senator for Tennessee from 1985-1993. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Al Gore had similar views to Bill Clinton. Gore was huge on the budget and economy, he believed that low interest rates are a key to strong economy and that prosperity results from current policy plus entrepreneurship. Gore believed that there were many human rights violations all over the world which needed to be addressed, war on terror being one of them. Gore was a huge believer of global warming and had ideas on how to address it. He was a huge believer in banning racial profiling, a huge step towards eliminating systematic racism. A step towards the right direction was his push to amend Affirmative Action so it could do more and help more marginalized people. Imagine living in a time where Gore was president and we started our focus on human rights violations and our push on green energy since the year 2000. That would have been a great time to be alive!
Besides missing out on a great 8 years from Al Gore, we are also currently enduring a President that has received some of the lowest approval ratings ever rather than enduring great times under Hillary Clinton. Hillary promised during her campaign that “For families making less than $125,000 a year, we will eliminate tuition” a huge step forward in the right direction. Another one of her promises involved immigration, “Pass comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship that keeps families together.” That would be a dream to all immigrants, especially DACA recipients who are currently in a chokehold under Trump. Hillary was all for helping citizens pay for their health care (improvement on Obamacare) and believed in fighting for equal pay and not raising middle-class taxes. Hillary was all for helping the middle class and those that needed help, unlike the current President who helped large companies and those that do not necessarily need the aid.
Even though the electoral college is a part of the Constitution, it no longer fits the needs of the modern day United States of America. We must eliminate this process and accept the popular vote as the deciding factor for all our future Presidents. Missing out on 32 possible years of great Democratic Presidents should be the force behind getting the Electoral College expunged.