Reprinted from hartmannreport.com
Republicans not only cling to minority rule, they now want to go to the next step and impose a neofascist Taliban-style government on America run by the morbidly rich and fanatically religious
Minority rule is killing America. This is most obvious in our Senate and Supreme Court, although it's also hurt the credibility of the presidency and is damaging many of our states.
It's happening because of two issues dating back to the founding of our republic, which brought us the Electoral College and unequal representation in the US Senate.
First, here's how the Electoral College came about, stripped of all the mythology (hint: it mostly had to do with avoiding somebody like Donald Trump ending up in the White House):
After the Revolutionary War, the nation was abuzz about one of that war's most decorated soldiers, Benedict Arnold, once considered a shoo-in for high elected office, selling out to the British in exchange for money and a title.
Arnold's name had been floated for president, and it raised the question of how we could make sure that a stooge working for a foreign government - or just for his own enrichment - didn't end up in the White House.
Back then, America was so spread out it would be difficult for most citizen/voters to get to know a presidential candidate well enough to spot a spy or traitor, Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 68. Therefore, the electors - having no other governmental duty, obligation, or responsibility - would be sure to catch one if it was tried.
"The most deadly adversaries" of America, Hamilton wrote, would probably "make their approaches [to seizing control of the USA] from more than one quarter, chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils."
A hostile foreign power influencing public opinion or owning a senator was nothing compared to having their man in the White House. As Hamilton wrote:
"How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy [presidency] of the Union?"
But, Hamilton wrote, the Framers of the Constitution "have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention."
The system they set up to protect the White House from being occupied by an agent of a foreign government was straightforward, Hamilton bragged. The choice of president would not "depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes."
Instead, the Electoral College would be made up of "persons [selected] for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment" of president.
The electors would be apolitical because it would be illegal for a senator or house member to become one, an injunction that is still in the Constitution.
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