Don't mess with Founders' plan for Electoral College

Here we go again. When losers of an election do not get their candidate for president, even though their choice received the majority of votes nationwide, they want to concoct ways to subvert the Constitution. They want to get rid of the Electoral College.

It seems to me to be very strange to read about people who have held an elective office, wherein they had to take an oath to uphold the Constitution, now advocate a democratic (note the small d) form of government, which would replace the Electoral College by various chicanery means.

Our Constitution went into effect on March 1789. It was based on a republic (note the small r) form of government where laws prevail versus a democratic form wherein the majority rules. The latter, sometimes referred to as “mob rule,” depends on the number of votes cast nationwide without regard to the Electoral College method. The republic form is based on the “laws” enumerated in the Constitution.

If America were to legally revert to a democratic form of electing our president, it would take an amendment to our Constitution that would take a two-thirds majority of the state legislatures to ratify. If ratified it would mean that the heavily populated states on the east and west coasts as well as Illinois would control our government. As an example: California at the last election voted 1.7 million more votes to Clinton than Trump. New York, where both candidates reside, went heavily for Clinton. That’s why chicanery will be attempted; whereas now people in the less populated states can vote knowing their voice will be heard.

If America were to resort completely to a democratic form of government there would be no reason for any of us in Montana to vote for a president. That was one of the basic reasons our Founding Fathers established an Electoral College so that every state had a voice in our government.

So keep an eye on our next Congress. This last election has shown me that it was not about the candidates; it was about our form of government. It was senior George Bush who stated, during the first Gulf War (and I heard him state)that the new world order was working. It was Bill Clinton who sold Congress on the one world order to give America NAFTA and a revised GATT. Since that time America now produces very little of our basic needs. We used to be a major exporting nation. Now we are the world’s greatest importer of our basic needs.

And we will also become a democratic type nation if chicanery prevails.

Hafferman is a resident of Kalispell.