Electoral College

I had a friend complain about the electoral college, and I responded. It's long, and I want to share it with my readers here. My friend says,

"[The electoral college] was only put in there because education was limited and they didn't want backwoods people to pick a psycho for President (too late). Now that everyone can read and has access to education it should be removed. What's the point of an election if your vote doesn't matter in the end? Why not just have the rich decide since we've become more of an oligarchy anyways."

I don't think the electorate college was put in place because people were uneducated, and if you think so I'd like to see a citation, but rather because we never wanted a direct democracy in the first place. And the reason we don't want a direct democracy is because it is a direct threat to liberty, and liberty is one of the highest principles in the country, and the founding fathers believed an electoral college was the best way to protect from the tyranny of a direct democracy. So if you want to argue for change in the system as such as you are proposing, you have to show why a direct democracy doesn't threaten liberty.

It is also dubious that everyone now can read and have access to education. Having access to education and being able to read doesn't entail that you actually are reading relevant information or that you are being educated in the relevant matters. I may have a PhD in chemistry, but how does that inform me on most pieces of local legislation? It doesn't. So the education bit is a red herring.

Also, there is hardly anything in which we have a direct say in federal matters, and electing a president is a federal matter. So why do you want a direct democracy in this case, but not in the cases of other federal matters, like Supreme Court decisions (for example, same-sex marriage was passed federally despite it being opposed by the majority of the nation)? In fact, wouldn't a desire for a direct democracy in all federal matters abolish the senate and congress? And if not, and I would like to hear why not, would you also be in favor of abolishing practices within our republic that are not decided by a simple majority? Such as a presidential veto, a filibuster, impeachment, expulsion of a congress member, ratification of a treaty, passing a constitutional amendment, calling for a constitutional convention, or restoring the ability of a rebel to serve in government (post civil war era especially)? These all require supermajorities (well, except the veto), but I don't hear any complaints about democracy there. So why only in case of electing a president?

To ask what the point of voting is if it doesn't matter is to somewhat beg the question. The popular vote doesn't count towards the election, but it does inform the electorate, and he can take your opinion into consideration. That's what it is there for, just as all representatives do. You let your representative know what you think, but they can always do otherwise. And if you don't like that, then you can vote them out of office. And electorates can change just like representatives do.

Finally, you actually seem to concede an important point towards the electoral college, or just a republic in general which is, the uninformed or backwoods voter. To say that Hillary won the popular vote as if it reflects the majority opinion of the country is false. The majority of the population didn't even vote. So you can't really say who reflects the desire of the country. If uninformed people vote for Trump, and we can presume that most of the people who didn't vote are simply not informed enough, then the popular will go towards Trump, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid in the first place. So that won't help you. How then do we ensure that uninformed people don't affect the election? By having a representative discern that. And that is exactly what an electoral college does.

Last questions, just to mull around in your head: if you want a direct democracy, why do you think we have states? Wouldn't that reduce the country to one state?