Here is an article at Townhall by Laure Hollis outlining an effort by blue states to erode/eviscerate our republican form of government. There is nothing to concede as if this process by the usual suspects was consistent with “states rights”. What they are attempting is the antithesis of that in the guise of “state” decision making. Nullifying the electoral college is an attack on the federal republic form of government and other states (indeed pure democracy is).
The big question is what is being done about it. Red states need to confront this attack, economically, politically whatever it takes.
The Sneaky Efforts to Undermine the Electoral College (excerpts)
So it is with the Electoral College. By assigning electors (and their votes) to the candidate who wins the most votes in any given state, the Constitution establishes a system that elevates the impact of smaller, less populous states, and creates an incentive for presidential candidates to cultivate the support of the residents of those states. ….
However, efforts are afoot to eviscerate the Electoral College without amending the Constitution. …
Specifically, the National Popular Voteinitiative seeks to get enough state legislatures to pass a law whereby the state’s electoral votes will go to the winner of the popular vote nationally, regardless of the results in that particular state. Connecticut is the latest state to have joined the compact, passing such a law this month. …
This compact is being touted by its supporters as being more “fair” than the current system. It is no such thing. Such a law effectively disenfranchises the voters of the states that pass it, in favor of large, highly populated states like California, New York and Illinois. In both the 2000 and 2016 elections, the popular vote majorities were established by virtue of voters in California alone. One state, therefore, out of 50, would have effectively determined the outcome of the presidential election under the National Popular Vote compact. A presidential candidate can safely ignore less populous states which have passed such a law, knowing that their electoral votes will go to the winner of California, New York and Illinois.
It is no coincidence that the 11 states where the compact has passed are Democratic strongholds where Hillary Clinton won in 2016; they are still bruised and seething from her loss to Trump.
But it is no more “fair” to hand over your state’s electoral votes to the winners of states like California or Illinois, than it would be to demand that the structure of the U.S. Senate be changed so that more populous states have more senators than less populated ones. Both tactics would undermine the balance of power that is the cornerstone of the Constitution, and render smaller, more rural states effectively voiceless in national government.
The National Popular Vote compact is an underhanded way to gut the Constitution without amending it, and to disenfranchise large swaths of the American electorate. It should be opposed.
