12-25-2016, 05:30 AM
(12-22-2016, 08:41 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:(12-22-2016, 08:07 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Eric Satt shared a link to the group: Democratic Open Forum.
18 hrs ·
The Electoral College was Founded, with Roots Grounded in Slavery!
James Madison, slave owner from Virginia and the nation's 4th President, proposed that we needed this Electoral College to give southern plantation owners, an equal shot at winning the White House. His fear (and other slave owners' fear) was that there were far more free, White males who could vote in the northern states and that they would control the presidency if each man received an equal vote.
First thing the framers of the Constitution did was count each slave as 3/5 of a person (instead of not being counted at all, which is how it should have been since they had no voting rights...The Three-Fifths Compromise). There were 500,000 slaves in the South. Counting 60% of their population towards votes and creating an Electoral College system that placed an inordinate number of Electors in the South, especially in Virginia, gave the them an unfair advantage towards the presidency. In fact, during the first 32 of 36 years after our Constitution was ratified, the presidency was won by a Virginian!!
Jefferson beat Adams in 1800, because of the Three-Fifths Compromise and Electoral College.
Fast forward. Slavery ended in 1865 yet the institution of the Electoral College still exists. It's a holdover from a terrible time in our nation's past. Slavery is gone so why are we keeping this outdated relic and allowing it to decide Presidents?
In the last 16 years, we have seen two USA Presidents selected, not by the people but by the Electoral College - Bush and now Trump. The former was, by most accounts, an abysmal failure. I don't expect much better from the latter.
http://time.com/4558510/electoral-colleg...y-slavery/
Let's allow Americans to make decisions for America. Kill the Electoral College.
If Trump were just a bit more hideous I'm willing to bet there would have been enough rogue Electors to stop him. Be careful what you wish for. The Electoral College is part of the system of checks and balances. If the electorate goes insane, it can intervene. We were close to that happening this time.
No, we were not close to that happening.