High time to change Electoral College

The South was fighting the Union long before the Civil War, like in 1787 during the Constitutional Convention.

The southern states were responsible for both the Electoral College and the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. They were compromises made in order to get those states to ratify the U.S. Constitution. The 2nd Amendment was not about militias as much as it was about the southern states being allowed to arm their "slave patrols."

Wikipedia has a good explanation of the Electoral College, including this to corroborate the Daily Herald's "Historians clearly document it was designed to protect the interests of the slave states. Pure and simple.":

"Madison acknowledged that while a popular vote would be ideal, it would be difficult to get consensus on the proposal given the prevalence of slavery in the South:

There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections."

Calls for a Constitutional Convention are misplaced and dangerous in our deeply divided and partisan country. At least the delegates to the 1787 convention knew the meaning of the word "compromise." A convention of states in the 21st Century would pit the red states, where white supremacy is alive and well, against the more diversely populated blue states. In case you hadn't noticed, those same red states are doing everything in their power to suppress the votes of their citizens, while the blue states are trying to make it easier for everyone to vote and have their vote counted (as in changing the Electoral College).

It is high time for the change that the Daily Herald is calling for in its editorial.

Diane Niesman

Wheaton