Fwd:The Electoral College Clarified- Interesting Perspective

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BreakPoint with Colson

Commentary #001113 - 11/13/2000

The Electoral College: What's This All About?

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The scenes from Palm Beach, Florida -- crowds

protesting in the streets, banners waving, lawyers

shouting -- are beginning to look more like a banana

republic than the world's most powerful nation. If

this case is not quickly resolved, public confidence

-- a fragile thing at best -- will be badly shaken.

Among the casualties of this mind-boggling situation

could well be the Electoral College. Most citizens

haven't a clue as to why we do not directly elect

presidents, or how it is that a president could, as

it appears in this case, narrowly win the popular

vote but lose the Electoral vote. I've heard the

Electoral College described repeatedly on TV as an

" anachronism. " And The New York Times op-ed Thursday

advocated abolition.

But Americans need a civics lesson. This country was

never intended to be direct democracy, nor was it

intended that the president be elected by direct

vote. And there was a very good reason for this, one

that was greatly influenced by a Christian

understanding of the form of government best

reflecting biblical values.

At the beginning, the Founders believed that ordered

liberty could best be achieved not by pure democracy

but by a republican form of government. The people

would choose leaders who would in turn rule over us.

And, powers would be balanced between the states and

the federal government. So, to make this work, the

senators were to be appointed by the states, and

electors would be elected who would in turn choose

our president.

In a republican form of government, the senators and

electors should be persons of noble character who can

rise above the public passions of the moment and who

act in the best interest of the nation.

The Founders recognized that often representatives

would have to go against the popular tide. Our

Founders, you see, recognized what Tytler

later said -- that democracies survive only until the

voters discover that they can vote for themselves

largesse from the public treasury. In this, the

Founders were deeply influenced by the political

understanding developed during the Protestant

Reformation. ish cleric Rutherford wrote

Lex Rex, the book that said, " the law is king, " and

enshrined the rule of law.

Calvin believed in the total depravity of man.

So, he argued not only against the " divine rule of

kings, " but also direct democracy; people, no less

than kings, were predisposed to sin. He advocated a

republican form of government with representatives

chosen to lead for us -- limited government, with

powers balanced. This, he believed, would best meet

biblical objectives.

Christians, of all people, need to understand this.

And, we need to tell our neighbors why the Electoral

College is still important. It is an essential

ingredient in a republican form of government where

states preserve their individual political identities

and power. It is certainly not an anachronism. And we

must not let the Electoral College be sacrificed in

the backlash to this extraordinary election.

On a final note, I want to urge all Christians to

pray fervently. It's imperative that cooler heads

prevail in this crisis. If this election is not

settled quickly, and if the demonstrations continue

and anger increases, there's a risk that public

confidence in the greatest experiment in liberty ever

undertaken will be undermined. And that's a greater

concern than the outcome of the election itself.

A postscript from Chuck Colson:

There are great risks in weakening the republican

character of this government. Through the first 130

years of this nation, senators were chosen by state

legislatures. When the Seventeenth Amendment was passed

in 1913, making senators directly electable by the

people, we turned senators into nothing more than

representatives with longer terms and bigger egos. It

may have seemed at the time like a victory for

popular democracy. But I suspect it is no coincidence

that the federal government began to expand

dramatically -- at the expense of the states --

immediately after the amendment was passed.

For further reading:

Amar, Akhil . " The Electoral College, Unfair From

Day One. " The New York Times. 9 November 2000.

Rutherford, . Lex Rex: The Law and the Prince.

London, 1644.

Tytler, Fraser. " Why Democracies Fail " in

Elements of General History, Ancient and Modern.

Concord, NH: J. F. Brown, 1837

(http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=723).

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