Maybe its time to take a another look at what our forefathers expected when they designed our government back in the 1700s. It is clear that the drafters of the Constitution did not trust the average voter. Of all the offices described in the document, only one officeholder – the member of the House of Representatives—was to be selected by direct vote. Every other office described in the Constitution called for a selection process that did not involve any choice from the general public.
Presidential officers, for example, were to be selected by vote of an Electoral College – a separate body created by the Constitution exclusively for that purpose.
In recent elections, the popular votes have been very close. In several years, perfectly legal machinations in translating the popular vote into the electoral vote has resulted in the Electoral College selecting the candidate with less than a majority of the popular votes as President. This has led to considerable discussion about abolishing the Electoral College.
However, the election of Donald Trump has given rise to a stronger argument: We should revisit the Constitutional issues and invest into the Electoral College more and not less in the process of Presidential selection.
In recent years, the national campaign for President has grown to a process that has nothing within it that relates to the experience and abilities required to service the office. The campaigns of both parties have been taken over by experts. The processes developed are exclusively designed for the election; they have nothing to do with qualifications for the office to be served. The time consumed is enormous, the effort required has become mind numbing and the results are increasingly unsatisfactory. The process has become so complex, time consuming, and expensive that the best and most qualified individuals who might become candidates for office are refusing to even consider running.
Television and modern technology have completely changed the basic characteristics of political campaigns. Presidential campaigns used to be a sincere effort by the candidate to physically show himself in public to the entirety of the electorate, and to strongly rely on the detailed written analysis in the nation’s press to explain in depth all the differences involved.
No longer. With television and modern technology, the processes are now designed by experts to present only a staged version of the individual candidate, which may bear no connection to reality. The days of personal campaigning are over. Reliance on any extensive examination by the press is over. Television coverage is the order of the day and coverage is measured in minutes if not seconds. For the average consumer of news, the detailed exploration of issues is a thing of the past. Campaigns today are by television and computer, structured by experts with everything planned, with nothing left to chance, and with complete insulation between the general public and the actual candidate.
The single, unscripted exposure that a presidential candidate might suffer may be the presidential debates on television. Under this completely fabricated exhibition the candidate is expected to expound from memory on an unspecified number of topics. The candidate may not refer to notes, is not given anything but broad subject matters to prepare, and must operate under a rigid time schedule that allows only seconds for consideration of the most significant tissues. The campaign debates have absolutely nothing to do with any qualification or expectation actually related to the office being sought.
Far better would be a process where the voters from each state select a set of representatives. The delegates should not be the legislators themselves, as the decision for president is significantly different that the decision expected of legislators. Further, under our Constitution, the Administrative section of the Constitution is segregated from the Legislative section. Keeping the process completely separated is consistent with foundational theory of the tri-partite system of government.
This may sound like the Electoral College that is already part of the Constitutional machinery. Selection of Electors to the College is now exclusively at the local level and could come before any national nomination of candidates. Let the conventions proceed to the selection of candidates after the Electoral College delegates have been selected.
The actual campaign for office, then, would only be by the candidates to the members of the Electoral College. The process would be much simpler and less costly, and could be designed to bring out and examine the actual and relevant qualifications for office of the various candidates.
The process is clearly broken and has to be repaired. The machinery has to be overhauled carefully but the work has to be undertaken. It is going to take years to recover from the mess Trump is creating but things are going to have to change. We must plan and prepare to prevent things from becoming worse.
We should start now.
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