You Call This Democracy?: Introduction–Chapter 1

More than two hundred years ago, a group of people met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with an ambitious goal—to create a government more perfect than any other seen on Earth.

Only one in five Americans trusts the federal government to do what is right most of the time. This distrust crosses party lines, with only 28 percent of Republicans and 15 percent of Democrats reporting confidence. These misgivings span racial, gender, and ethnic groupings as well as generations.

Wildfires rage. Droughts destroy farms. Cities and towns are inundated with floodwaters.

Many American citizens are tired of gridlock and the partisan divisions splitting our country.

You’ve probably heard of the Electoral College, but you may not realize that this strange process actually takes a very important decision, who gets to be president, out of the hands of the people.

After revealing flaws in our democracy, each chapter shows how we can address them and offers a bounty of organizations, websites, and other resources to get started.

Though Americans vote on the first Tuesday in November, the president and vice president are not actually elected then. Instead, every state is allocated a number of people called “electors” equal to the number of the state’s U.S. senators and representatives.

Another concern at the time was education. Founders thought it prudent to leave the decision to fewer, better-educated citizens. Today, with twelve years of free, public education available to everyone, literacy is near universal in the United States.

Alexander Hamilton wrote that electors would stop someone with “talents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity"’ from taking the top office and further prevent “foreign powers to an improper ascendant in our councils.”

Alexander Hamilton wrote that electors would stop someone with “talents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity"’ from taking the top office and further prevent “foreign powers to an improper ascendant in our councils.”

In other words, Hamilton hoped electors would prevent a popular but corrupt candidate or someone strongly influenced by foreign powers from taking office.

In 1976, a shift of roughly nine thousand votes in Hawaii and Ohio would have wrested the presidency from Jimmy Carter (D), despite his almost 2-million-vote lead nationally over Gerald Ford (R).

They don’t pay for ads advocating for their positions or educating voters in those states. They don’t even bother to try to register voters.

Not only was this demeaning and dehumanizing, but it also ensured that southern states with large populations of enslaved people got more electors and thus had more say in electing the president even though blacks could not vote.

Not only was this demeaning and dehumanizing, but it also ensured that southern states with large populations of enslaved people got more electors and thus had more say in electing the president even though blacks could not vote.

They suggested that the United States reconsider the electoral system: “The aim of these proposals would be to ensure that presidential candidates campaign equally in all states and do not focus only on swing states,” says the report from forty-one election experts and observers from eighteen countries. “In addition, they are an effort to ensure that public policy priorities are not distorted in an effort to win the vote of the most contested states.”

Policy issues important to the few battleground states overshadow the interests of the country as a whole.

As Businessweek noted: “[The] corn farmer living in Iowa is coveted by both parties and showered with goodies, such as ethanol subsidies. But just next door, the wheat grower in Republican South Dakota is insignificant to Presidential candidates."

As Businessweek noted: “[The] corn farmer living in Iowa is coveted by both parties and showered with goodies, such as ethanol subsidies. But just next door, the wheat grower in Republican South Dakota is insignificant to Presidential candidates."

The inaccurate oversimplification of the electoral map polarizes people.

The national popular vote gives states an incentive to increase their power by energizing their citizens—and that is good for democracy.

The Electoral College was established through Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution. That means getting rid of the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment. The U.S. House and Senate would have to pass the amendment by a two-thirds vote. Three-fourths (thirty-eight) of the fifty states would have to ratify, or formally agree to, the change.

Within days the Chicago Sun Times, New York Times, and Minneapolis Star-Tribune endorsed the idea. “We say the United States is ready for real democracy,” said the Los Angeles Times.

The compact will take effect once states representing a total of 270 electoral votes—the number needed to win the presidency—have signed on. The endeavor is two-thirds of the way there, with just seventy-four more electoral votes needed.

States can withdraw at any time except for the period six months before the end of a president's term until the successor has been chosen.

During debate over the measure in the Colorado Senate, Ken Gordon (D) said: “We think the president should be the person who gets the majority vote. It’s the bedrock of our democracy.”

The good news is that state legislators pay attention to phone calls, letters, emails, petitions, and visits from their constituents.

For your newspaper’s address and submission process, search the internet for “Letters to the Editor" and the name of your newspaper.

I do not recommend a Constitutional amendment lightly. I think the amendment process must be reserved for an issue of overriding governmental significance. But the method by which we elect our President is such an issue.
—Jimmy Carter (D), thirty-ninth U.S. president

Presidential elections should be a time when the entire nation is galvanized into action through a vibrant democracy because every citizen has a voice in setting the nation's direction for the next four years.