Free Speech TV: Video: Democracy Now: Hendrik Hertzberg: New York Joins Pact to Elect President by Popular Vote

I like this idea of throwing out the Electoral College and going directly to a popular vote to decide the President of the United States as much as like the idea that wealthy people should get more votes than other people simply because you have more money. Instead of all voters being entitled to one and only vote, which is the way it is now, and has been since 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The whole idea of having the Electoral College is so that elections in more states matter and that presidential candidates have to campaign even in at least some small states if those states are swing states. New Hampshire being a perfect example of that but Iowa is another good example of that as well. You take that away and the Democrats will go to the Democratic big states and Republicans will go to the Republican big states to lock down their bases and run up the votes needed to win. And then perhaps go to a few key swing states to get them over fifty-percent. With the rest of the country still getting to vote but without much influence in who is the next President of the United States.

Not saying the Electoral College is perfect and I agree to a certain extent that it is undemocratic because we've had unpopular people elected President of the United States before. George W. Bush case in point in 2000. But if you are familiar with this blog at least you know that America is not a pure democracy in the sense that everything is done by majority rule to begin with. We are a Federal Constitutional Republic in the form of a liberal democracy where our individual rights can't be taken away by a simple majority vote.