Posted by Kevin Robinson on November 25, 2020 · Leave a Comment (Edit)

The hard truth of the matter is that the Electoral College was created as bait for the Southern states to originally join the union, and no one thought about it when the Civil War ended — except for the “political slavers” down south, who have used it to their advantage right up until today. The Electoral College the last vestige of racism By Edward L. Marcus special to Hartford Courant

From the 50,000 foot view of America’s fragile democracy, one whose fragility is growing by the day, we must take a serious look at the origins of a racist compromise and the core foundation of the flawed American experiment’s superstructure called the Three-Fifths Compromise.

Fissures (flaws), historically ignored for 225 years, have now begun to threaten its integrity. Three-Fifths is not just a dainty name for a series of articles but is central terminology to most of America’s atmospherics behind the grand illusion. 

“The creators of our Constitution gave states congressional representation for three-fifths of their enslaved population. That boosted Southern states’ voice in Congress, despite the fact that the enslaved were not allowed to vote.” The Electoral College the last vestige of racism By Edward L. Marcus special to Hartford Courant

This illusion is defined by its ever-evolving ambiguity. Whether the repetitive breaking of truces with Native Americans, or the perpetual white backlash, overturning blacks’ social advancements throughout history, the broken promises of comprehensive immigration reform, or the attempted disenfranchisement of millions of black and brown voters in the 2020 presidential election. The sleight of hand “move the goalpost,” Lucy’s last-second snatching the ball away from Charlie Brown’s kick mentality makes the American dream elusive at best for those whose melanin permeates two to three layers of skin. 

Many have questioned, “why a presidential candidate would only focus on a white working-class base rather than expand to a wider variety of constituents?” Simply put, this plays to the base with an eye toward driving through a truck-sized loophole in our democracy called the Electoral college. Minority rule is straight out of the Soweto South African playbook. 

In 2016 the presidential election came down to 77,000 votes across Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, three upper Midwestern states. These three states share one common denominator. They are populous states with large older white populations reared in a vastly different America. In somewhat of a role reversal to the 1787 southern states, now the so-called industrial Midwest is the setting to exploit black bodies whose urban numbers bolster these states’ electoral power and yet deny their votes.

Based on the numbers game, a unified minority united by white American dominated cultural norms on television/media, majority populations in rural areas, exurban neighborhoods, schools, and at the front door come high school prom time, make the white working class a powerful voting block. A winner takes all per state electoral college system, provides the breeding ground for inequities. Such a voting block can cause imbalance and nullify millions of popular votes nationwide, many of which are from voters of color.  

One of the many dog whistles epitaphs used to divide Americans further is the word cosmopolitan. Stalin first used this word’s perversion in Bolshevik Russia to squelch political dissidents’ voices, mainly Jewish ethnicity. Nationalists use the term to rally a populous movement against the so-called elites, science, and those urban inhabitants who are comfortable with a more diverse global community. The words of Patriot Thomas Pain would not sit well with these present Nationalist or White Nationalist. 

“The world is my country; all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” Thomas Pain

“White working-class Americans were once the backbone of the U.S. economy, accounting for 70% of the adult population in 1975. Just over four decades later, that number has shrunk to 40% — an all-time low — new economic research reveals.” CBS News

Worst is the 2020 attempt to turn the Electoral College into Racketeering by misleading the American public to think that it is a democratic institution while pressuring state legislators to replace Committed Electors with Faithless Electors. These Faithless Electors potentially can then overturn the popular vote in that state.

Five times in American history, the winner has lost the popular vote, and two of those times happened in the first 16 years of the 21st century. Something must change. To conclude, the outdated, racially suppressive, and arguably undemocratic system should be reimagined in the form of a proportional system that allows representative votes to be apportioned to the percentage of the popular vote by state. This would give electoral voice to the voiceless from the deep south where most African Americans live, to all states for people of color and all Americans. Faithless Electors should be illegal, and voting tampering laws broadened to stop the manipulation of certifying canvassing boards and state legislatures, etc.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr

Kevin Robinson Executive Director of Accord1