THE FINAL GUARDRAIL
Two hundred and forty years ago, fifty-five delegates met in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia and created a “democratic republic.” It was the first time in history that any founding document began with “We the People,” creating a government controlled by “the People.”
They had no template save for ancient Rome, which, while a republic, was hardly democratic. The delegates included some of the brightest people in the Colonies, but they were not omniscient, nor prescient, so they created a path for amendment. They warned against the formation of political parties, fearing it could ruin the republic.
The Constitution, which has served us well for 240 years, divides power into three branches: the Executive (President), Legislative (Congress), and the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Each was to serve as a check and balance for the other two; a guardrail keeping our republic on track. This system generally worked, even when strained. However, in the last 10 years, many guardrails have been dismantled by an increasingly powerful minority rule. The Republican Senate refused to even vote on Barack Obama’s SCOTUS nominee, and Trump, despite losing the popular vote by nearly seven million, appointed three justices, including one after his defeat in 2020 but before Biden or a Democratic Senate could take office.
Many delegates to the Constitutional Convention wanted pure democracy but feared “mob rule,” and the northern states had higher populations than the southern states, leading to the compromise of counting a slave as 3/5 of a person and instituting the electoral college.
Fast forward to July 1, 2024. With the exception of George W. Bush, no Republican has won the popular vote for president in 30 years, yet we’ve repeatedly had Republican presidents. No President of the United States is elected by the will of the people. The judiciary was expected to serve as a guardrail, but recent decisions, including the Dobbs decision and Trump v. United States, have undermined this. The Right-Wing Six overturned the premise that no person is above the law, returning the U.S. to a dictatorship where the dictator is above the law and grabbing power for themselves.
Ultimately, whether this situation continues or is reversed depends on you, the voter. Simply winning the popular vote is not enough. We must have a large enough popular-vote win that the Electoral College becomes irrelevant.
We the People are the FINAL GUARDRAIL. It’s your choice.