Has the Electoral Commission/College become obsolete?

To a person, I am sure that you will hear that this nation was founded on the principal of inclusion.  Where people of many different cultures, races and religions could come and be welcomed.  It was founded on the idea that it didn’t matter where you came from or who your family was, the only thing that mattered is your willingness to work hard for what you receive and your acceptance of the rules and regulations set down by those elected to represent the nation’s people as a whole.  These ideas seem now to be lost after the Clinton versus Trump presidential election.  It appears that now it is time to revisit a subject that many feel has been resolved long ago but as history really does have a tendency to do, it has repeated itself yet again.

The major thought of citizens having a voice in who they wish to lead them has always been a cornerstone of thought but given very little consideration until recent events has now placed this thought front and center.  It is reported and believed that the Electoral Commission was created temporarily by Congress to fix the dispute of the presidential election of 1876. It was made up of 15 members, 5 representatives, 5 senators, and 5 Supreme Court justices as Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution but it did not stay temporary and in fact was later replaced by the 12th Amendment because of the problems which occurred in the elections of 1796 and 1800.  This amendment was proposed on December 9, 1803, and was ratified on June 15, 1804, renamed the Electoral College and has been the only true choosers of all presidents and vice-presidents since. 

Now while this may have made sense then, the damages it has done to the very fabric of this nation will not be truly felt until this election of 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. History tells us that in 1824 Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but lost to John Quincy Adams; that in 1876 Samuel Tilden won the popular vote but lost to Rutherford B. Hayes; that in 1888 Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost to Benjamin Harrison and of course many of us all remember the 2000 election between Al Gore and George Bush where Gore won the popular vote but lost.  It must be said, however, the Gore/Bush election was not seen clearly as the choice of the people being circumvented because it was greatly over shadowed by the Florida recount.  For a nation filled with very intelligent people, one would think that somehow some where we would learn from this history but sadly even though seasons change people often don’t and therein lies where history keeps repeating hoping to once wake us up out of our complacency.   

What makes the 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump even more frightening than all those others combined is the fact that the very idea upon which this nation was formed has been placed into a very vicarious position, that proverbial slippery slope, if you will.  The thought that a nation that is inclusive, that welcomes all to her shores, that doesn’t consider any one unworthy of her goodness and requires nothing but a desire to work hard and obedience to her laws would be turned over to a person who has done nothing but speak in a manner completely contrary to all these things.  A man, who has been created by the obstructionist of a major party, built up by the media of this nation and brought to full growth by all the hatred, bigotry and worse angels.  This feat was not accomplished by the people because again the popular vote went to his opponent; it was handed to him by this Electoral College.  A hand-picked group of people that may or may not have ever considered the will of the people.  This special group of back-room occupiers who looked to who they wanted and slaughtered that one right that so many have bleed and died over to provide for every single American. 

We are told to go vote and made to believe that our vote does count.  We appear greatly frustrated when we hear someone say that our votes don’t even to the point of violence but in the end, after the European flavor add to our constitution, we know that they are right.  The popular vote should stand, the majority should rule and in the case of a tie, those states tied should have a run-off to determine the winner.  Those who risk anything to cast that ballot should be the only ones who matters during an election and not those chosen by a select few to sit back and decide for an entire country.  Maybe those choosing to ignore the popular vote this time around saw it as their duty to give our hard-fought nation over to someone who didn’t even seem to understand what she stood for or maybe the Electoral College figured, as they always do, that they knew best.  Was it truly about the Electoral College wanting change or was it a simple thought that being president must not be that hard since a Negro was able to do it for 8 years?