Our “Broken System” Is What Grants You Freedom: Why the Electoral College (Among Other U.S. Government Practices) is Important

As the (bizarre) 2016 election cycle came to a dramatic finish, emotions ran high. And although most of us welcome the relief accompanying the conclusion of this political race, a lot of Americans also find themselves confused as they sort through, and embrace, the new reality and future of our great nation (and relearn how to play nicely with their fellow countrymen).

But this is important; we ought to expect that working through a change as drastic as an Obama-to-Trump presidency will take a bit of sorting out.

And that’s okay. I do not believe that we should be discouraging America from working through this transition by attempting to hush the concerns of the affected individuals. Which is all of us – we are all affected by this extraordinary evolution.

Rather, we ought to allow each other to (respectfully) express our concerns and desires, and work together to resolve those apprehensions after true American fashion: united.

With that said, I want to help my peers work through one of the most frequent concerns that I have come across over the course of the last few days. And that is that the American people “want their voice to be heard”. I have seen a general disapproval of the U.S. government’s system in electing officials because it is not a “true representative of what the people want”.

This is by design. And it’s the very thing that continues to grant us our freedom in this country.

The United States of America is not a Democracy. Intentionally.

At least, it’s not a “pure democracy” in the way that American laymen seems to think they want.

When the Founding Fathers of our nation were determining how best to establish the American government, they all agreed that they did not want another monarchy (as this was the very reason that they removed themselves from Great Britain).

They did differ a bit, however, on the best way to establish the government in lieu of monarchy.

Some believed, like a lot of Americans as of late, that officials ought to be elected by popular vote in the way of “pure democracy”. Others believed that elected officials (politicians) ought to be the ones to choose America’s leaders, instead establishing America in the way of a “republic”.

Eventually, the Founding Fathers and enlightenment thinkers of Early America determined that a hybrid between a democracy and a republic would be an ideal form of government. So they created a “mixed government”, as it was called.

This form of government is what we have today. Progressive writer and talk show host Thom Hartman explained it well when he said that the American government is “a constitutionally limited representative democratic republic [where] … the constitution, limits the power of government. We elect representatives, so it’s not a pure democracy. But we do elect them by majority rule so it is democratic. And the form of, the infrastructure, the total form of government, is republican, it is a republic.” (Source)

When asked “Well, Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?” Founding Father Benjamin Franklin responded, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” (Source)

Franklin understood that the American people would probably continue to call for “pure democracy”, as it is natural for individuals to want to feel like their voice is being heard. Especially when it comes to casting a vote for President of the United States.

But the way that our system of government has been created, individual votes absolutely count. We each elect our state officials by majority vote; so each state exercises “pure democracy” to elect their state’s electoral representative. From there, at least during a presidential election, those elected state officials then cast their vote for president.

And this form of government has been a really beautiful, and effective, compromise.

To this end, the Founding Fathers of our great country developed the Electoral College as a “compromise between the election of the President and a vote in Congress and election of the President by the popular vote of qualified citizens.” (Source)

This “Mixed Government” System Is What Continues To Grant Us Our Freedom.

The United States Government is unlike any other government in the world. The innovative establishment of checks and balances, this system of “mixed government”, the Constitution of the United States of America, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights – all of these things were designed to inhibit monarchy in this great country, and grant its people the freedom that we enjoy (and apparently, sometimes take for granted).

This is what is meant when America is referred to as “the greatest country in the world.”

Are we a perfect government? Of course not. Do we have progress to make in the way of individual freedoms (women’s rights, LGBTQ community, immigrants, etc.)? Absolutely.

But our Founding Fathers recognized and understood that freedom of a country and freedom of an individual, while both equally important, would require different methods of administration.

They understood that allowing a country leader to come into power by way of “pure democracy” could place our country dangerously within reach of despotism, because a congregation of laymen may not entirely comprehend the potentially negative ramifications of acting on a passionate, though sometimes unfounded, opinion. An individual with a career in government (more often) does.

So instead, the Founding Fathers established a form of government where “pure democracy” could determine individual freedoms by allowing majority votes to elect state officials, and then encouraged states to govern themselves; while also creating a “republic” (elected state officials) to determine country freedoms and elect country leaders, with influence from the states’ democracy.

This form of government also unifies the states of America by encouraging them to work together toward common goals of interest to the nation; as opposed to each individual American fighting a political battle on their own. 

Our freedom in these United States of America was difficult to come by. And although it can be arduous sometimes to recognize and accept a compromise on something as important as electing a government official, this has proven to be a very effective system in the United States of America so far. And although compromise can sometimes be difficult to accept, I believe that to maintain our freedom, it is worth the effort.