The viability of the Electoral College has been a hotly debated topic since last month, when Donald Trump became President-elect. Last night, the Electoral College's 306 votes for Trump made him, officially, the next President of the United States, even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by three million ballots. This makes Trump the fifth President-elect in history who actually lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College and, therefore, the presidency. History tells us that, more than once or twice, this results in presidencies that are, well, not awesome.
In 1824, Andrew Jackson beat John Quincy Adams in the popular vote, but neither candidate reached the minimum electoral votes to be elected president (that number was, at the time, 131, compared to 270 now). The House of Representatives ended up selecting John Quincy Adams to the presidency. Actually, as far as presidents go, John Quincy Adams was not that bad — he had a foreign policy stance of nonintervention, and domestically, he was against the barbaric treatment of Native Americans that Jackson championed. Unfortunately, Jackson beat Adams in the next election.
Rutherford B. Hayes won the Electoral College by a single electoral vote in 1876, even though his opponent, Samuel J. Tilden, won the popular vote. Hayes was not a terrible president, but he did face some huge obstacles as commander in chief. The beginning of his presidency in 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction, and his appointment to the oval office was actually part of a compromise which included the withdrawal of federal troops from Southern states. This was an act which many say was akin to abandoning African Americans at a pivotal time in history when they needed the support of the federal government most. Hayes also played a controversial role in the labor rights movement, and sent federal troops to put an end to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Railroad workers protested after their wages had been cut three times in a year, and the president responded by shutting them down rather than hearing them out.
Grover Cleveland won 168 electoral votes compared to Benjamin Harrison’s 233, so even though he won the popular vote by 90,000 ballots, Harrison became the next president in 1888. Harrison has been called one of the most ineffective presidents in history — one who is not so much bad as he is, say, politically stagnant. He did, however, pass a collection of bills that promoted economic regulation for businesses, and fought against monopolization of companies in the economy. That all sounds well and good, but by the end of Harrison’s first (and only) term, the country was in the worst economic depression it had seen so far, the so-called Panic of 1893. Harrison’s concern for farmers and miners- the “common man”- was admirable, but apparently misguided, and resulted in failing banks, rising unemployment, and home foreclosures. Whoops.
After Harrison, the Electoral College and the population worked together harmoniously, electing some great and some not-so-great presidents. For over a hundred years, the popular vote and the electoral vote, essentially, matched. That all ended in the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Al Gore won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College, and because Bush defeated Gore by some 500 votes in Florida, he secured the state’s electoral votes, and became President. Of course, some things that come to mind when we think of George W.’s presidency and are fairly innocuous: his mispronunciation of the word nuclear, and the whole incident where he confused an “old saying” with a song by The Who:
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in
Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me
twice—you can’t get fooled again.”
In addition to these blunders, George W. has some much more dangerous legacies. His slow and inadequate responses to Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 cost many lives immediately after the disasters and long-term, both in America and abroad. He also created a mere 1 million jobs- lower than any president in over 50 years. He squandered the budget surplus left by his predecessor Bill Clinton, and his deregulation of Wall Street led to the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression- the Great Recession of 2008.
Well, this leaves us with the fifth and hopefully last incident of a disparity between the Electoral College and the popular voters, the election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Although Trump has yet to be inaugurated, he is already showing signs of being one of, if not the, worst president(s) America has ever seen. Incidents of hate crimes against the LGBTQ community, Muslims, African Americans, and Hispanics have skyrocketed since the election. He doesn’t have time to attend intelligence briefings, but he does have time to go on Twitter tirades in the wee hours of the night. And, despite his campaign promise to “drain the swamp,” the individuals that he has so far appointed to his cabinet, together, comprise the wealthiest, least educated, and least qualified cabinet to ever exist in this country.
Of course, every president has their flaws. The presidents listed above were not all bad or morally repugnant, nor was every president not mentioned a great, or even good, leader. In addition, the fact that these presidents were all Republican is irrelevant (especially since half of them were Republicans that are worlds away from the Republican Party we know today). Even though I am as left leaning as they come, it would be naïve, foolish, and erroneous to say or believe that every single Liberal president is 100% fundamentally “good,” and every single Republican president, morally “bad.”
Even though not all of these presidents were as harmful as others, there is a pattern here- each presidency that wasn't the will of the popular vote seems to be even worse than the last. Even some of Donald Trump’s voters, themselves, have expressed regret at casting their ballots for the Don. Whether the Electoral College can, should, or will be abolished isn’t yet wholly clear, but one thing is: we have work to do. After all, there is an old saying from Tenessee, or maybe Texas, or maybe Pete Townshend… “fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me twice—you can’t get fooled again.”
But it appears that we can.
