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The Defending the
Constitution Project |
Electoral College
Eligibility |
The U.S. Constitution was established to
protect the rights of U.S. citizens. It does not grant us rights, it
protects our natural rights. This is important because those selected to
hold office are sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution, thereby acknowledging
that whatever their office, the U.S. Constitution’s law is fundamental and
no other bill or ruling can alter this fact.
The Framers created a constitutional republic. They took great pains not to
create a democracy, which they feared. Checks and balances are
intended to slow the process of creating legislation and moderate the
extreme views of factions which otherwise impose on minority rights instead
of creating law for the common welfare of society.
To help prevent those selected to office from abusing the power of their
office and imposing tyrannical rule, authority was divided between the
federal and state governments, and within each of these governments, between
the branches. A bicameral legislature was created, further separating the
representatives of the people from those representing the states.
James Madison wrote,
“In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily
unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a
state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the
violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the stronger
individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit
to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the
former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradnally [sic]
induced, by a like motive, to wish for a government which will protect all
parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful.”
Our Constitution was designed to protect majority and minority rights by
preventing any one faction from having too much power and undermining the
people’s sovereignty. This is achieved by holding citizen and representative
to the same law.
When the Framers deliberated over the qualifications of the president, they
made natural born citizenship a qualification to protect against foreign
influences and “the electoral college mechanism was a compromise primarily
about how to allocate the votes for president, rather than the source of
legitimacy of those votes… popular election was unacceptable to the small
(less populous) states and states where slavery was practiced. The electoral
college mechanism met the separation of powers concerns of Madison and at
the same time solved the representation problem of the small states and the
south.” (The
Electoral College and the Framers’ Distrust of Democracy)
Regrettably, there are serious encroachments on the checks and balances
meant to protect our states rights, such as the 17th Amendment, which
changed the election of our senators by their state legislatures to their
election by the popular vote. Currently, there is a movement which would
abolish the Electoral College and replace it with direct election of the
president, based on popular vote. This would eliminate the current power of
the 50 states to elect our president and have the effect of eliminating a
national constituency.
BasicsProject.org has initiated The Defending the Constitution Project to
educate people on legislative initiatives which are designed to protect the
Constitution or would have the effect of encroaching on the Constitution and
undermining the fundamental law. It is our hope that after reading more
about the importance of the Constitutional design, activists will advocate
to protect the Constitution by working to defeat or support such
initiatives.
Peace out! |
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Electoral College |
States with Proposals to
Eliminate the Electoral College
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In Federalist 51, James Madison writes,
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the
great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to
control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A
dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the
government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary
precautions.”
Madison’s concern is that, even though the people are sovereign, hold the
ultimate authority over the government, there need be additional mechanisms
to assist in preventing the possibility of power becoming consolidated
within a particular faction of those charged with governing on our behalf.
Should power become consolidated under one entity, and the faction abuse its
authority, the people would be ruled through tyranny, denying them their
ultimate sovereignty unless they take drastic measures to remove the
authority from power.
Perhaps what Madison is saying here is better understood through an analogy
of what can happen when those charged with looking after our best interests
give greater concern to selfish motives. Until a child grows into an adult,
he or she cannot make all the decisions associated with being grown up. In
such a case, all power is vested in one or two parents who are expected to
make decisions in the best interest of the child. Sometimes one or both
parents make really bad decisions that can cause irreparable damage to a
child. This might require a drastic measure, such as a child protective
services agency stepping in to remove the child from the situation. James
Madison feared that those in a position of power may not always put our
rights first. This problem would become much worse, and more drastic
measures would need to be taken, when all authority is vested in one entity
that is in charge of all decision making, as in the situation of a child
with abusive parents.
Read more... |
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Eligibility |
States with Proposed Eligibility Legislation
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Over the course of the 2008 presidential
cycle BasicsProject.org researchers came to the startling conclusion that
while the prerequisites for holding the office of President of the United
States are set forth in Article II, Section 1 of the United States
Constitution there is no mechanism for enforcing or verifying a candidate's
satisfaction of those requirements.
Article II, Section 1 specifically states:
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United
States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible
to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that
Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been
fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."
Yet, nowhere in the US Constitution is there authorization for a mechanism
to assure that Article II, Section 1 is satisfied; there is no
constitutional mechanism in place -- either in the original document of in
any of the amendments -- that requires a candidate for the office of
President of the United States to file documents proving his eligibility to
hold office.
Read more... |
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