Former Rep. John Dingell, who served in the House of Representatives for nearly sixty years, is so irate that Democrats were unable to win the presidency in 2016 or the Senate in 2018 that he is calling for both the Electoral College and Senate to be abolished.
The reason given for his recent tirade is that both institutions give small states a say in how the country is governed rather than allowing large, liberal population centers to chart the course the nation takes without input from anyone else.
Rep. Dingell is hardly the first liberal to call for the abolishment of the Senate and Electoral College. The Electoral College received a great deal of attention back in 2016 when Donald Trump won the presidential election, even though Hillary Clinton ostensibly received more votes. Numerous liberals were furious that their candidate lost, and journalists made it a point to emphasize that the elections weren’t fair simply because the result wasn’t the one they had envisioned. Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined in, telling an audience that if there was one thing she could change in the United States, it would be the Electoral College.
The calls to get rid of the Senate are fairly recent, and stem from liberals’ anger over the fact that Donald Trump has been able to appoint two conservative justices to the Supreme Court thanks to the fact that Republicans control it. The anger has most likely been exacerbated by the fact that the Republicans have actually been able to expand their majority in the Senate, making it even easier for President Trump to appoint more conservative judges for the foreseeable future.
The anger over the fact that small states still have equal representation on the Senate floor really has nothing to do with the fact that states such as Iowa and Kentucky have a smaller population than liberal states located on the east and west coasts. There are plenty of small states on the Northeast coast such as Vermont that tend to vote Democrat, and Democrats aren’t complaining about that at all.
Rep. Dingell and others who agree with him are focused on rural states that skew red. These rural states can have an impact on the laws that are and are not passed in the country because they have equal representation in the Senate. Without this representation, these states would have literally no say, rendering national offices from these states effectively useless.
When the Founding Fathers structured America’s government, they created a system of checks and balances on multiple fronts. The system is meant to ensure that no single state or party has full control over the whole system at any given time. This means that Republicans, Democrats, and whoever else comes along in the future has to compromise to some degree. Having just fought a bloody revolution against a monarchy, the Founders certainly understood the value of political stability in a republic.
The Electoral College, along with the Senate, ensure that each state is given a fair say in how the country is governed. At the same time, the House of Representatives gives large, densely populated states a say in how laws are formed and how the government spends its money.
Unfortunately, Democrats and their liberal activists no longer seem to care about what is best for everyone in the country. Weirdly, they didn’t seem to care about these things when they were in power, but they develop strangely anti-government feelings when they’re not. In the end, Rep. John Dingell’s calls are hardly the most surprising thing to come out of a Democrat’s mouth.
~ Liberty Planet
