5 of 27

Yes

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

"a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them." Translation: A republic is a representative democracy. Imagine that.

It is impossible to have a direct democracy or a pure democracy in a nation of some three hundred million people. By necessity we need to elect representatives to work our will in Congress, otherwise we would never get anything else done. This does not make us "not a democracy," any more than water being dirty makes it something other than water. It is worthwhile to take into account that the Founding Fathers had a strong distrust of anyone who was not white, male, and a property owner. We have grown as a nation beyond those petty prejudices. Surely we can grow beyond the idea that democracy is "rule of the mob," as they put it, and therefore something to scorn and avoid.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Electoral College never made sense as anything other than a means of keeping the North in power over the South (which may have been justified for a short time immediately after the Civil War, but certainly wasn't before then, nor is it now), is a relic of an age in which women, the poor, and people of color were held in great suspicion (and still are now, but at least it is not codified in our laws), and has the potential of overturning the will of the people. Whether or not we are a pure democracy, we are still a democracy and we should protect our right to self-governance accordingly.

It is useful to remember that these are the United States of America, not the Fractured States of America. The federal government is not some alien entity that we did not create, bent on controlling us from the outside-it is a part of our system. It is a governmental expression of what we all have in common, no matter what state we each inhabit. The President is the one member of the federal government we all vote for, and so should clearly represent the will of the entire nation, not just bits of it as in the case of an individual Representative or Senator. Therefore, in the process of electing a President, it is time to cut out the middlemen.

Learn more about this author, Dana Seilhan.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

Add your voice

Know something about Should the electoral college be abolished??
We want to hear your view. Write now!