Electoral college is essential to preserve the Republic

To The Daily Sun,

I disagree with Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg who recently argued that the electoral college is obsolete and the popular vote should determine a presidential election. Our President is a President of United States. We have a Federal Republic Government that is based on the premise of dual sovereignty, meaning the Federal Government is really a Federation of States, and the voice of each State should be heard in the election of a President, as it is in the Congress via the Senate.

Additionally, our Republic is based on separation of powers, and the separation of powers was originally preserved by having each branch of the Federal Government chosen by different means. This was discussed by Hamilton in Federalist Paper #60, “But the circumstance which will be likely to have the greatest influence in the matter, will be the dissimilar modes of constituting the several component parts of the government. The House of Representatives being to be elected immediately by the people, the Senate by the State Legislatures, the President by electors chosen for that purpose by the people, there would be little probability of a common interest to cement these different branches in a predilection for any particular class of electors.” This was unfortunately overlooked in 1913 when the 17th Amendment established that Senators would be elected by direct popular vote, and Buttigieg is asking us to overlook this reasoning again.

We are a Republic, and our Constitution promises us a Republic. Our Republic is one of popular sovereignty, infused with powerful democratic elections, processes, and procedures; however, we are not a democracy. The founders wanted to guard against “…a common interest to cement these different branches in a predilection…”, and they knew that “a common interest” may be guided to create an arrogant or self-righteous majority, an Ochlocracy, who may steamroll the interests of minorities (i.e. smaller and less populated States) in the name of the “common good”.

Therefore, we should strengthen our Republic by making the Electoral College robust by getting rid of faithless elector laws, and educating people about the function and importance of the electoral college. Federalist 68 says in part, “Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?”

Given the recent Democratic focus on corruption and intervention of foreign powers, and given the Electoral College was designed to prevent these, I am surprised to hear any Democrat speak against the Electoral College!

Tejasinha Sivalingam

Ashland