I anticipate some caterwauling this election from the Democrats again about the Electoral College. Here is part six of an ongoing series on reasons that we still need the Electoral College. Reason The Sixth: It Undermines Claims That The United States Is A Democracy

We are not a direct democracy.

We never have been.  God willing, we never will be.

The Founding Fathers (angel choir) were very wise men.  They recognized, from their extensive knowledge of the histories of the democratic and republican states that had come before us, that direct democracy simply does not work.  People are too selfish, too impulsive, too emotional.  Systems that have embraced an excess of democracy invariably collapse under the weight of socialist bread-and-circuses or turn into dictatorships.  Anyone who has ever tried to get ten co-workers to agree on a place to eat lunch instinctively and immediately understands why democratic governments undergo a constant temptation to just pick a dictator and be done with it; maybe Maximum Leader Stan won’t pick the best restaurant, but at least he’ll pick something and we can eat, for heaven’s sake.

Instead of democracy per se, the Founders (angel choir) recognized that a democratically-selected republic would be somewhat more resistant to the constant temptation of dictatorship, or the siren song of socialism.  The Senate was originally an appointed body (and should be again).  Representatives were directly elected, to give the people a legitimate direct voice.  The President would be selected by an electoral college, whose members would represent the will of the people in each state, but who would have the power to put the kibosh on truly outrageously bad choices. 

A lot of people with very dubious political agendas would like very much for us to be a direct democracy, because they believe (correctly) that their destructive beliefs could be more easily implemented if all they had to do was fool a certain percentage of the population.  The non-democratic aspects of our system, such as the electoral college, represent something of a barrier to such illegitimate aspirations. 

We’re a republic, not a democracy, and our political institutions reflect that spirit of delay, compromise, and the holding at arms-length the political will of the people.  The people’s voice is a trumpet, not a 10,000-watt speaker stack.  It strongly influences and ultimately controls, but does not hold the whip itself. 

That’s the list so far; if I think of new reasons to keep the EC, I’ll post them.