Congressional Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren speaks at the Women in Finance Symposium, March 29, 2010. Photo provided by the Treasury Department.
“Democracy is the Most Vile Form of Government”
— James Madison Father of the American Constitution
In The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson explains Elizabeth Warren’s recent attack on the Electoral College. Warren wants to tear down the Electoral College the same way she wants to destroy most of America’s traditional systems. Davidson writes (abridged):
On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren reiterated her view that the Electoral College should be abolished, and U.S. presidents should be elected by popular vote. “My goal is to get elected—but I plan to be the last American president to be elected by the Electoral College. I want my second term to be elected by direct vote,” she tweeted.
The alternative, what Warren and the Democrats would like to see, is exactly what Madison said it was: a tyranny of the majority. In this case, it would be a tyranny whose enormous power was concentrated in Washington, D.C., to an even greater extent than it already is.
Under a system based on direct democracy, federalism would wither and die. As the historian Allen Guelzo noted last year in National Affairs, once we eliminate the Electoral College, “there would be no sense in having a Senate (which, after all, represents the interests of the states), and eventually, no sense in even having states, except as administrative departments of the central government.”
No wonder progressives like Warren want to do away with the Electoral College. It’s the first domino in a chain reaction that would lead to the overthrow of our constitutional system and the beginning of a new American regime—one that knows no constraints on its power and has no mechanisms for protecting the rights of the minority.
Read more here.
My goal is to get elected—but I plan to be the last American president to be elected by the Electoral College. I want my second term to be elected by direct vote. pic.twitter.com/a2Lj2a9F0F
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 2, 2019
