A Republic If You Can Keep It

[Keith Broaders]

The greatest threat to the survival of our republic is democracy. Like a cancerous tumor the seeds of democracy were planted by rich and powerful men who  wanted to transform our republic into a democratic empire run by an oligarchy of the Wall Street bankers and corporations.

In  1824 we  still had a functional Electoral College, but things were about to change.  

In the election of 1824 there were four Democratic Republican candidates that received electoral votes. Andrew Jackson (99), John Quincy Adams (83), William Crawford (41) and Henry Clay (37).

The number of electoral votes required to win the election was 131 and since none of the candidates obtained the needed number of  electoral votes, the House of Representatives was called upon to decide the winner of the election.

After the election in 1824 the process of electing the President changed. The states decided to hold state-wide popularity contests and award all of their electoral votes to the candidate receiving the most popular votes.

Instead of trusting the judgment of the electors the states decided to trust the judgment of the masses of ignorant and uninformed voters,

By awarding all of the state's electoral votes to the winner of the statewide popular vote the system that was created to prevent the tyranny of the majority was now promoting it. 

While only 264,393 Americans voted in the Presidential election in 1824 over a million voted in the Presidential election in 1828.

The states had the Constitutional authority to choose the method of choosing the electors, but did not have authority to tell electors who to vote for.

The states turned the electoral system into a statewide popularity contest and established a system promoting democracy and the tyranny of the majority. 

When the majority of voters are ignorant and uninformed it is easy for tyrants to control the outcome of elections.