We are all familiar with the “A republic, if you can keep it” reply attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the close of the 1787 Constitutional Convention upon being asked what type of government the Constitution was bringing into existence (the remark notated by Dr. James McHenry, a Maryland delegate).
Though we’ve weathered countless assaults on this dear Republic, she has to this point withstood utter destruction but not without enormous harm from decades of big government politicians and policies fueled by an ever-increasing socialistic populace whose disregard for the unalienable rights of individuals fuels their demands.
As a resident of Colorado for 33 years, I sadly now see it becoming not more of a state of freedom, independence, or liberty, as you might envision for such a beautiful Western state. Instead, it is being transformed into a progressive state controlled by Democrats.
Fraught with examples, a significant and glaring one is SB19-042 passed by Colorado’s Senate Tuesday, January 29, which, if next approved by the State House and then signed by Democrat Governor Jared Polis, will result in Colorado’s voters effectively being disenfranchised in presidential elections.
A brief explanation: The bill strips Coloradans of having any real say in presidential elections, so that rather than letting the people of this state decide where its electoral votes are cast, it will (along with other states who have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact) cast its electoral votes for the winner of the nationwide popular vote regardless of how the people of Colorado vote.
The agreement of states has been accepted into law in 11 states plus the District of Columbia with a total so far of 172 electoral votes. Once and if it attracts additional states sufficient to add 98 more electoral votes, it will be implemented by all participants. Achievement of their goal will circumvent the work it would have otherwise required to try and get an amendment to the Constitution. It is already being seriously considered and voted upon in numerous other states — enough to become the law of the land determining the presidency if more join — enough to destroy the republic and representative government in favor of direct democracy. Any state government which chooses this path is an opponent of representative government, an enemy of the Republic, as it goes against the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution.
Whatever legitimate problems with how the current system works (and there are several concerns, such as population tallies affecting apportionment and the winner take all electoral stance of many states), taking away the fundamental right to choose representation from millions of voters is not the way to better our nation. The states who have joined this, and those who will, are essentially taking the vote away from many states of our union, taking the vote away from the millions of people in those states, taking representation away from the minority (consider the vast differences between heavily urban and rural voters) and essentially turning the country from a republic into a democracy, the very monster the Founders were adamant in rejecting.
The current method of electing a president has been subjected to changes over the years, however, none approach such deviation from what the Founders intended more than this. After much deliberation, and with serious concerns then and now when examined, they and those now who value the checks and balances instilled in our system, reject direct democracy, which is what direct election of the president would be a major step toward. There is certainly need for improvement of the process, especially in view of issues such as voter fraud and population-count controversies, but this is the not the solution to those problems.
This is a union of states, each separate and with individual interests reflecting their citizens, and the prerequisite to maintaining (to the degree it still remains) state sovereignty is maintaining a representation of the voters’ will of each state through the electoral college. If the elimination of the current electoral-college process occurs, we might well witness a rapid escalation of all manner of evils, as our chief executive will no longer be representative of all the United States of America. I believe this push is yet another effort by those who seek to override representative government in order to increase the socialist agenda in government. The “democracy” these people clamor for is the antithesis of what our Founders envisioned, for those who wrote the Constitution knew all too well about the devastating results of the tyranny of the majority.
The United States of America was founded as a republic. That’s what it should be in the future.