The latest political fad, besides Democratic Socialism – whatever that is (hint: just the Democrat Party) – is a blue state scheme to elect the president in a direct national vote. Colorado has become the 13th state to green light a bill that awards all of the state’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. This may not happen in 2020 though – the trigger event for this multi-state compact to go live is a critical mass of states totaling 270 electoral votes passing the same law.
Butt-hurt about two recent elections where the Republican nominee won the White House without receiving the most popular votes, Democrats are attempting this end run around the Constitution, and self-hating Colorado lawmakers were eager to get the ball rolling in Denver immediately after taking control of state government. If enacted nationally, the result would completely marginalize small states like Colorado, and focus the presidential election on major costal areas of high density population.
Senator Cory Gardner, interviewed this week on Fox News Channel, put it plainly: “The person that Colorado votes for may not get Colorado votes – it will go follow New York or California…” Watch below at about the 2:15 mark:
What is completely ignored in the Democrats’ calculus here is that if the 2016 election was awarded to the candidate with the most popular votes, it does not mean that Hillary Clinton would have necessarily won. President Trump was not trying to win the popular vote – he was trying to win the presidency – which obviously dictates a completely different strategy. As the system is currently set up, presidential candidates need to appeal to Americans all across the country, in far off places like Colorado, to be elected. And that’s exactly what Trump did. You can rest assured that Trump would have followed a different tack had the White House been decided by the large vote states of New York and California.
But that’s not the way the game is played, and the Founders had the foresight to realize that one day future states like Colorado – far away from the nation’s capital and major population centers – also need a say in who leads the country.