The Patriot Post® · Electoral College: Republic vs. Democracy

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) became the latest public figure to jump on board the Left’s anti-Electoral College bandwagon this week. Gillibrand, a 2020 Democrat presidential candidate, opined, “Our democracy is built on the principle of one person, one vote. It can’t function until we restore that principle. It’s time to abolish the Electoral College.”

It appears that Gillibrand needs to brush up on her U.S. civics knowledge. The fact of the matter is the United States is not nor ever was a democracy; it’s a republic. In truth, Democrat leaders know this, but their instinct is to seek to change the rules when they don’t win rather than change themselves. And they cynically exploit ignorance among their constituents to achieve their ends.

Abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, and in leu of that, 12 blue states have colluded to send their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote rather than the winner of popular vote within their individual states. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV) is essentially designed as a means to get around the Democrats’ objection to federalism.

Fortunately, there are some folks making efforts to educate Americans to the wisdom and benefits of the Electoral College. “Save Our States” is one such project. Trent England, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) and director of OCPA’s pro-Electoral College, explained, “When we’ve been able to sit down with Republicans (and some Democrats) and explain how the Electoral College really benefits the country and the political system, usually NPV passes (if it passes) with only Democratic support and bipartisan opposition.”

The Daily Wire’s Josh Hammer writes, “England and his OCPA colleagues at Save Our States frequently travel to state legislatures to meet with lawmakers considering NPV proposals. He educates lawmakers — generally Republicans — both about the highly partisan money backing NPV, as well as the Founding-era political theory undergirding the Electoral College.”

The great irony here is that Democrats who love to tout their support for diversity are constantly working to eradicate it if it means a diversity of ideas and viewpoints.