America is supposed to be the land of the free. We, as Americans, pride ourselves on our democratic ideals, including our ability to elect our representatives. So why is the Electoral College still restricting us from actually doing so? Two Republican presidents have been elected in the past two decades without winning the popular vote, meaning more Americans voted against them than for them. There is no democracy in that. Seeing that there is a particularly contentious election coming up in only a few days, it is more important now than ever before to abolish this antiquated and useless system.
The founding fathers put this in place to avoid a “tyrannical majority”. But how can the majority be tyrannical? And does Trump, the very candidate that was aided by the Electoral College, along with his supporters, not fit this exact situation they were attempting to avoid? Although the system was put in place to protect a political minority, it had the opposite effect of empowering them to make decisions over the majority. That sounds much more like true tyranny.
A common argument to keep it in place now is that it protects rural states with smaller populations. At first, this may sound fair, but why do states with smaller populations get more power per constituent than California? This isn’t fairness; it’s voter suppression. If New York City has more residents than Alaska, then that political power doesn’t need to be redistributed. A vote in one state should be equal to a vote in another, which is why a popular majority should win the election. This would also eliminate the idea of swing states, so more than a handful of states would receive attention from the candidates, and voters in a non-swing state could still have their voices be heard even when voting against the majority party. Presidential candidates would have to work harder to convince the American people of their merits, rather than just employing strategic campaign moves in Ohio and Florida.
In conclusion, the majority should have the power, and smaller states deserve equal representation, not more. The Electoral College must be abolished, especially if it guarantees Donald Trump a second undeserved victory.