Re: [EM] The Rotted Electoral College (was Action)

[hager2002 at lsh107.siteprotect.com]

On Thu, 11 Apr 2002, Alex Small wrote:

> Paul Hager wrote:
> 
> >I'm rethinking my support of the EC. Perhaps the best way to protect
> >state interests is to repeal the 17th Amendment -- direct election of
> >Senators -- conditioned on direct election of the President.
> 
> The Founders had a nice idea:  Put the selection of Senators and Presidents
> in the hands of specially chosen people.  The problem is that most people
> say "Why should I choose you to choose somebody?  Why not decide whom _I_
> want and choose electors who agree?"  That resulted in pledged electors
> almost from the start, acting as proxies for candidates rather than
> independent agents in most cases.  Also, many states started to have
> unofficial Senate elections, which the legislature would ratify.
> 
> In principle I would support electing the President by a deliberative body
> of specially chosen sages, convened for a weighty decision.  Who could
> object to sending our wisest people to make a great decision?

The Venetian Republic chose electors by lot.  Those electors then used AV
to select the Doge.  The idea was to minimize fationalism.  This seemed to
work pretty well for the Venetian oligarchs, but wouldn't work today.  A 
true random sample would just reflect the larger electorate from which it 
was drawn so what would be the point?

> 
> The "problem", of course, is that people won't surrender their authority
> over their government, so electors become proxies for national candidates.
> The result is that the Electoral College is a crude accounting scheme
> rather than a wise conclave.  If we can't have a conclave of sages I'll
> take the consensus of the American people over any crude accounting system.
> 
> Alex
> 

That pretty much sums it up.  For me, the real issue is balancing state 
power and protecting minority interests.  That's why I'd want to see 
direct election of senators repealed.  It would take a different mind set 
than the one dominant today for that sort of solution to be acceptable, 
however.

-- 
paul hager		hager2002 at hager2002.org

"The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason."
			-- Thomas Paine, THE AGE OF REASON