Month: March 2019

What’s wrong with America when the majority–even a supermajority–cannot get Congress to heed the will of the people?

Professor Tim Wu who teaches law at Columbia university wrote in the New York Times on March 5, 2019, that “Ignoring what most of the country wants — as much as demagogy and political divisiveness — is what is making the public so angry.” Below are some excerpts from his article, The Oppression of the Supermajority.

“About 75 percent of Americans favor higher taxes for the ultrawealthy. The idea of a federal law that would guarantee paid maternity leave attracts 67 percent support. Eighty-three percent favor strong net neutrality rules for broadband, and more than 60 percent want stronger privacy laws. Seventy-one percent think we should be able to buy drugs imported from Canada, and 92 percent want Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. The list goes on.”

“In our era, it is primarily Congress that prevents popular laws from being passed or getting serious consideration. (Holding an occasional hearing does not count as “doing something.”) Entire categories of public policy options are effectively off-limits because of the combined influence of industry groups and donor interests.”

“It is not a concession to populism, but rather a respect for democracy, to suggest that two-thirds of the population should usually get what they ask for.”

A misbegotten concept, a tortured idea partly born of slavery, still haunting us today.

I’ve written here before about whether or not it’s time to abandon the long-compromised tool of the Electoral College as a framework for fair and just elections in the U.S.. The subject has come to the forefront again.

As Jamelle Bouie states in his column in The New York Times this morning, The Electoral College Is the Greatest Threat to Our Democracy, “On Sunday, Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, said he would sign a bill to join the National Popular Vote interstate compact, whose members have pledged to give their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The Maine Legislature, likewise, is mulling membership and will hold hearings to discuss the issue.”

In his column, Bouie writes clearly about how the Electoral College system is contorting our national elections today. And he writes about the sometimes jumbled set of circumstances that brought about the creation of the Electoral College during the closing days of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It was a compromise concept, and after George Washington’s election during which it seemed to function as hoped, it immediately began to create entanglements in subsequent elections. It has been controversial ever since.

The concept of one-person-one vote has been distorted by the Electoral College since it’s inception. It needs to be reconsidered–seriously–and abandoned.