Princeton Prof. Sean Willentz, in a New York Times op-ed, confesses he was wrong about the racist roots of the Electoral College – says he’ll correct error in second edition of his recent book. Bill Whittle and Scott Ott examine the true reasons for our method of electing a president, and why Democrat efforts to snuff out the Electoral College must be stopped.
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19 replies on “Electoral College Not Racist: Princeton Prof’s NY Times Mea Culpa”
It had long been noted that the Electoral College outcome rarely differed from the outcome of the popular vote, except in 1876. In fact, American historians noted that one of the outcomes of an extremely close popular vote is that “ties go to the rural (e.g., less populated) states.” Which, frankly, is what happened in 2000, Bush v Gore. The popular vote was razor thin yet Bush won 30 mostly rural states while Gore won the heavily urbanized states plus a few others, 20 states total.
The 2016 election was the same as 2000, with a few shifts, yet the popular vote totals were not razor thin; Clinton won a plurality of 2%. Yet, Trump’s win was still the intent of the Founding Fathers; that one party couldn’t load up on votes in urbanized states and take the Presidency without winning a reasonably significant number of rural states.
But I see why the left is doing their whining. They see a generational shift happening not only between urban and rural but between white and non-white. Because that is what the demographics are behind the 2016 election. And … this is the big secret … the honest members of the left know that this is an outcome of their own making.
They are the ones who promoted massive 3rd-world, non-white immigration to the USA, and they are the ones who began crowing in the 1990s that the demographic and cultural destiny of America was non-Western and non-white. The left called the Democrats the party of the black and brown, and they are terrified of the day when whites begin calling the Republicans the party of the whites. Because then, this rural-urban divide will be permanent for a generation, and the GOP will win a lot more elections even though they lose the popular vote by a couple percent.
Epically well done gentlemen. I’m pretty sure many newer Americans have no knowledge on this topic at all.
Without the 17th amendment, the senate would be controlled by 50 different centers of villainy & scum. With the 17th, it is controlled by one center of villainy & scum.
I don’t believe the majority of college kids today have ever heard of “the Connecticut Compromise.” They’ve been Fed the pablum of leftism their whole lives and, rather than being taught critical thinking, they’re taught critical theory.
17th Delede Est
All they need to do to understand that the Electoral College is not racist is read Frederick Douglas’ writings on the subject.
This video should be shared full length on YouTube and Required watching for every American
Hah. I have to make an extremely juvenile observation: Bill, you said “bi-camel”! I spent the next five minutes trying to imagine a bi-sexual camel, and came to the conclusion that it couldn’t be all that unusual, since it would be in the Middle East ‘n all…
It’s what I love about “BW Now”. It’s unedited.
But I missed whatever you said right after that.
I thought he said, “Buy camel.” Though I’ve heard of legislative horse-trading, I thought this was more culturally inclusive of marginalized peoples.
A better analogy would be two football teams, one scores 600 total yards and the other 400 yards. But, the one scoring 400 yards pushes the ball across the goal line and out scores the other team. You don’t play for yardage, you play for points and this happens almost every weekend.
The New York Times…as Klavan would say, a former newspaper.
Great discussion. At the root of the electoral college issue, is that the current state of civic education in this country is severely lacking. People are not taught in school that we are a REPUBLIC, not a DEMOCRACY. Democracy is the last stage before socialism and the inevitable communism. Republicanism is a bottom-up approach to governance while democracy is a top-down approach requiring strong or charismatic leadership to put it into play. It’s a shame the “Ox-Bow Incident” by Walter Van Tilburg Clark does not seem to be required reading any longer, as it was when I went to school.
Well….because we have so many people who do not even understand what form of government we are under, is there any wonder that the hue and cry became so prevalent in 2016 concerning the popular vote? They still whine about it today….as though it matters….it doesn’t matter…Bill is absolutely right…It is how the states voted that matters….
Interesting that you addressed the purpose of the Senators…I hadn’t realized that it had changed…I always thought that they were supposed to represent the interest of the states….
There was also a change in many states for the state legislators to be elected to represent equal numbers of citizens instead of geographic areas. Imagine your state legislator representing a county or a set number of square miles instead of 30, 50 or 100k people.
Interesting. I enjoy listening to your comments and arguments on these topics / topic of the day.
I agree on the importance of the Electoral College, as I live I gotta the Great Lakes area, western end of the rust belt, and I want my vote to matter. I don’t want my needs as a citizen of the country to be meaningless just because of the opinions of the residents of more populous cities/states, for example California, Texas, and New York.
First they concentrated on using the presidency to further their agenda. Upon losing that–to their great, disbelieving shock–they concentrated on using the legislative branch to push it. Then, as they began to lose control of the courts, they focused upon an impeachment of the president based upon a hoax perpetuated by FBI and CIA actors under Democratic direction. Now that that has gone bust, they want to change the Electoral College so they can ensure they win the presidency next time. Rural America does not want to be ruled by urban America. The college keeps the playing ground level between states (i.e., colonies). Aristotelian Logic may say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but the idea of fairness in America dictates that the rights of the individual outweigh the desires of the collective. The Left wants total, absolute control, but they will never get it. If they worked half a hard on making America a better place as they do trying to tear it apart, our country would be in a much better place. Not that its all that bad as it stands…
What will the left eat if they don’t have the cooperation of Rural America? Each other?
How ironic that the first time I met you and heard you speak in person was at a Craw-fish Boil in Baton Rouge. Keep up the fight!