Donald Trump, in 2012, said: “The Electoral College is a disaster for democracy.”
Now, in November 2016, Mr. Trump would not be President-Elect without the severely outmoded and undemocratic Electoral College.
Too little attention has been paid to the democratic reality that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.
As of this writing, Nov. 11, there are still a few million votes to count, but it appears that the American people as a nation prefer Clinton over Trump by 300,000 to 500,000 votes, or more.
More alarming for future Republican candidates, this is the sixth time in the last seven presidential elections when Democrats have won the national popular vote.
One can appreciate the design of the Electoral College in the 1780s when travel was primitive and so were communications.
The defense of that system of voting for a “republic” was to place decision power in the hands of state leaders who, at that time, realistically could make more informed decisions about candidates for the highest national office.
We now live in a massively transformed society. It is particularly ironic that, as the nation that took the first significant strides toward democracy, we are now outclassed by most others where “the vote of the people” is what counts.
Candidates now have a chance to become well known to voters.
As “Dilbert” cartoon creator Scott Adams points out, no one has been Trump’s equal for “branding” skills and promoting “visual persuasion.”
Still, none of that was enough to enable Trump to win the popular vote over Clinton, and in several states he gained electoral votes by very slim margins.
Does it seem rational, or democratic, that Trump, with vote margins of 1 percent, or less, in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, got all the electoral votes of those states?
That was his margin of Electoral College “victory.”
If California could cast the same proportion of electoral votes to population as Wyoming, its share would increase from 55 to nearly 200.
It is time we start counting citizens instead of perpetuating an artificial eternity for federalism’s origins.
Furthermore, history shows that many states have undermined democracy rather than served it.
Consider the sources of segregation, locales of the KKK, opposition to women’s rights and limits on free speech.
Our constitutional amendments have highlighted that we are “Americans” and only secondarily state affiliates — check Amendments 14, 15, 17, 19 and 26 especially; all of them decree national standards regardless of views that individual states might prefer.
As Jacob Hacker writes in his appropriately titled book, “American Amnesia,” we too often neglect the vital role that the national government has played in advancing democracy and quality of life for all American citizens, often over state resistance.
Now “the national popular vote” movement is advancing toward reforming the Electoral College without needing a constitutional amendment to do it — see nationalpopularvote.com.
That process has been buttressed by demonstrations of tens of thousands of Americans in dozens of cities who know that Donald Trump did not win the popular vote in America.
The fact that Mr. Trump conducted himself and his campaign more abusively and disrespectfully than any previous candidate drew critics by the multitudes — in unprecedented numbers within his own party.
A petition, already signed by several million citizens, calls on electors, when they meet in their respective states on December 19, to give their support to Clinton as the winner of the national popular vote.
That’s not likely to happen, but all of this might prompt Mr. Trump to realize that he lost the popular vote and to start moderating the extremism of his rhetoric and proposals.
While the map of the United States looks “red” when you gauge states by party affiliation, the population of the United States is “Blue” in terms of our largest numbers of citizens.
And, given the nation’s demographic trends, even states like Arizona, Georgia and Texas are migrating from “purple” toward “blue.”
It’s just a matter of time – and even more quickly than you might surmise.
So far, 10 states plus the District of Columbus have adopted laws that stipulate they will designate their representatives in the Electoral College to support the candidate that receives the largest national vote.
Once those states reach a total of 270 they can implement popular vote choice in the United States without trying to overcome small state obstructionism.
As of 2016 those states total 165 electoral votes.
In the meantime, all voters and nonvoters can heed Lincoln’s striking view when he emphasized that elections belong to the people: “If they decide to turn their backs on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
I believe Lincoln would urge them to start healing by mobilizing for national popular vote.
