Hear the Thunder
columnist: Gary Wood

Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Ralph Nader Calls for Direct Democracy

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In his newly announced bid for the White House Green Party member and Independent candidate Ralph Nader says it’s time for a Jeffersonian style revolution while also calling for a move toward direct democracy in the United States.

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by Gary Wood
(Conservative Libertarian)
Monday, February 25, 2008

Making it official, Consumer Advocate and Green Party member Ralph Nader announced his 5^th bid for the White House on Meet the Press Sunday. "A Jeffersonian revolution is needed in this country," Nader told NBC that great changes in U.S. history have come "through little parties that never won any national election." While this is a very impassioning reason to embrace his bid as good for the process there is one strong portion of his campaign that raises red flags for anyone wanting to see a restoration of our Constitutional roots.

In an interview this morning with American Morning's John Roberts Ralph Nader stated, among his other policies and reasons, that it was time for this country to scrap the electoral college and embrace a direct democracy. Siting the 2000 election, where Al Gore won the popular vote yet George Bush took the White House, he blamed the current election process for the defeat. What Mr. Nader and others who point to this result fail to articulate is the victory of the States by Bush.

Al Gore obtained 543,895 more votes than George Bush in 2000. There were many other controversies and challenges during this election, including the hotly contested voting recount in the State of Florida. Many pundits who supported Bush point to the mass media's early call for Gore winning in Florida as a reason voter turnout in Western States were suppressed, skewing the overall total votes given to Bush. Had the Florida election not been called for Gore their belief is more Republican voters would have gone to the polls out west and there would not have been a descrepency between popular and electoral votes. This is something we will never know. Yet it is important to note Gore's total, while .005 more than Bush, was still only 48% of the total votes cast.

What we also know is the one fact those like Nader never mention when calling for direct democracy. Bush won 59% of the States to Gore's 41%. This is how George Bush was able to garner 271 electoral college votes compared to Gore's 266 (270 are needed to win). Calling for direct democracy was quite popular after this race. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stated, "We are a very different country than we were 200 years ago," she said. "I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people and to me, that means it's time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president."

Her sentiments are shared by many of our politicians and pundits today. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. argued in a Washington Post article that he believes it is time to overhaul the electoral system. "For the fourth time in American history the winner of the popular vote in a presidential election has been denied the presidency. This puts the republic in an intolerable predicament," he wrote. "It is intolerable because it is undemocratic... We can no longer tolerate the possibility that the winner of the popular vote be denied the presidency." Yet are we a direct democracy?

As Ralph Nader once again raises this debate to national attention will the voters embrace the emotions and sounds of this rhetoric? A poll conducted in 2000, by the Washington Post and ABC News, found that 6 out of 10 respondents believed it was time to abolish the Electoral College, replacing it with direct elections instead. How many of us today understand the real issue surrounding this debate? The core of our federal republic experiment was the dissimilar voting methods enacted by the U.S. Constitution to insure we did not fall into a pure democracy but rather established this nation as a federalist republic.

William C. Kimberling, at the time the Deputy Director of FEC's Election Administration, wrote an essay, The Electoral College. In it he explained "...presidents would be selected through the domination of one populous region over others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the rural ones." The nine largest populated states have enough voters to win a majority in direct elections. However, these same states only control 243 electoral votes. Without the system of electors campaigns would be free to focus on major populated areas while ignoring fly over' America. In his Townhall.com column of December 25, 2000 Steve Chapman stated it this way, "The Electoral College, however, has some virtues that are not easily appreciated at first glance. One is that it obligates candidates to seek out votes in places that Washingtonians normally regard as uncharted wilderness." (Emphasis added)

This is critical for all people to understand before being caught up in the sound good concept of a direct democracy. John Samples of the CATO Institute stated, "We should stick with Madison's idea of a federal republic and preserve the Electoral College." This is what is at stake, our very foundation as a federal republic. It was weakened in 1913 when the 17^th Amendment was ratified allowing the direct election of Senators. To now complete the transition by supporting the call for the direct election of the presidency U.S. citizens can bury as dead the experiment ratified 220 years ago this coming June. We will no longer have any real connection to a federal republic and will see the overall influence of the states and people diminish even more rapidly than we have seen since 1913. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, "A page of history is worth a volume of "logic," and history shines a kind of light on the Electoral College... It's a mistake to chase after perfection when what we have is good enough."

When this renewed call for a direct democracy rings true to your ear remember the words of Madison, "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." Our founders clearly studied the history of direct democracy and saw it for the tyrannical animal it is, mob rule where 51% are allowed to control the will of the other 49%. If you join with the campaign to become a direct democracy today you may well find yourself among the 49% tomorrow.

I appreciate Ralph Nader throwing his hat in the ring. I hope many others from third-parties and Independent sources also join in the campaign. However, I encourage everyone to study the reasons why the founders developed different methods of voting for the different federal offices. We don't need to eliminate the Electoral College. Rather, we need to restore it to its pure format while repealing the 17^th Amendment. That is, if we want to continue the federalist republic experiment that makes our country great!

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2008 by Gary Wood
- Permission to copy with attribution granted.

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2008 Gary Wood, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, February 25, 2008
Last modified: Monday, February 25, 2008

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