Saturday morning Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election. No matter how you feel about that, the last few days have been a perfect classroom to test how you feel about the Electoral College vs the National Popular Vote to determine an election.
As of today, 16 States have passed legislation that requires that their electoral votes be given to the candidate who wins the national popular vote. In other words, the voice of these States’ citizens will be subjugated to the national voice whenever the two disagree.
Advocates for this believe that the national voice is more important than the voice of each State, for a variety of reasons. Detractors, like myself, say that the Electoral College guarantees that the diversity, needs, and values of each State get a more accurate and weighty voice, the way our forefathers intended.
This week has provided the perfect opportunity for you to test your opinion and insure that you truly do value your perspective regardless of who gets elected with it.
Try this out:
Biden has outperformed Trump on the national level by between 4 and 5 million votes. That is huge and Popular Vote advocates say, regardless of the Electoral College, Biden should be the winner. Test #1: in 2016, Trump won the College but lost the popular vote. So, do you believe that Hillary Clinton should have been our President for the past four years, or do you prefer the College? Now, carry your answer to that question into the next question.
Test #2: There have been six “battleground states” that determined the outcome of the election. We have been glued to the exhausting counting process in those States so we could declare a winner. What if those six States were a nation? Biden has been winning four of those States, and thus the Electoral College portion of the contest. However, Trump holds the popular vote of these 6 States, combined, by over 100,000 votes, or 10%. So, if these six States were the entire nation, Trump would be your President if decided by the Popular Vote.
So, if you are a Democrat, you. “Win” with the popular vote in Test #1 and you lose in Test #2 (with a smaller nation as the example). Do you still feel the same on the Electoral College issue?
If you are Red, you lose the popular vote in Test #1 and win it in Test #2. Do you still feel the same on the Electoral College issue?
Let your mind embrace both outcomes and reflect on them for a minute. Do you still hold your opinion, regardless of whether you win or lose?
My point: If you value the popular vote idea, and it’s because you like what that would do in recent history, you need to insure that you feel that way if it worked “against you” as well.
I continue to recommend the documentary, “Safeguard” on Amazon Prime. It’s 77-minutes that will help you reach clarity of your position on the Electoral College. For me this is, perhaps, our most critical issue for a sustainable and healthy Republic.