I very often see posts on my Facebook feed railing against the electoral college, and I believe that liberals and, I’m sorry to say, even progressives are taking it way too seriously. I often get it from Robert Reich, who is someone I’d like to believe is on our side. His economic positions are right on, and he seems like a decent, fair-minded human being. But, his pumping up of this issue makes me think that maybe he is part of the Hillary Clinton-Goldman Sachs distraction machine.
The thing is, the electoral college is not the problem. Sure, it’s a leftover from the 18th century, but so is paper money, the U.S. post office, and champagne. Sure, it’s an awkward system that few people really understand, but so is particle physics. The thing is, the electoral college is NOT the reason bad candidates get elected. Hitler did not have an electoral college, and he got in. On the U.S. side, Lincoln, both Roosevelts and Jimmy Carter were all chosen by the electoral college. (whether they won the popular vote or not is irrelevant, so I’m not looking that up) So, it’s just as likely to come down on the side of the candidate you like as not.
The reason bad candidates get elected is that voters are gullible, there’s a lot of big money in politics, and an absolutely endless supply of corrupt, greedy politicians willing to exploit those twin weaknesses.
One candidate who’s been pointing this out (the money in politics and the corrupt, greedy politicians, I mean) for a long time now is Bernie Sanders. But, I’m sure you all knew that.
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