Stacey Abrams Says The Electoral College Is Racist and Classist

Stacey Abrams, the failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate who continually claims she actually won, is at it again.  In a speech to the National Press Club, she claimed the Electoral College is “racist’ and “classist.”

Nevermind that Barack Obama won the Electoral College twice.

Failed Democrat Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams: "The Electoral College is racist and classist" pic.twitter.com/BClPYSdphu

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 15, 2019

First, Abrams is just wrong when she says the Electoral College wasn’t designed to protect less populous states like Idaho.  Votes in the Electoral College are equal to a state’s number of seats in Congress.  The whole idea behind a bicameral legislature with equal representation in one chamber and representation based on population in the other was a sort of compromise – a way to balance the interests of differently sized states.

Second, I’m so tired of the claim that the United States was founded on slavery.  It’s become a major talking point again, especially with the New York Times’ 1619 project that launched earlier this year, but it is simply not true.  The Founding Fathers – even the ones who owned slaves themselves – generally recognized the moral evil of slavery.  They treated slavery like a cancer.  Yes, early Americans had slaves.  But by 1800, slavery was abolished in half the sates.  The Constitution placed a moratorium on the importation of slaves beginning in 1808.  Less than a century after America’s founding, slavery was wholly abolished.  If you look at the history of the world, that is amazing.

Slavery was a universal phenomenon throughout history, including through the end of the 18th century when America was founded.  No nation did more to abolish slavery, and more quickly, than the United States of America.

Finally, her remarks with regard to classism are simply asinine.  The Founders weren’t specifically trying to limit the power of immigrants and the less educated. That may have been a factor, but the overarching concern was this: the Founders loathed and feared (rightly, in my opinion) the possibility of “tyranny of the majority.”  Therefore, they rejected instituting a democracy in favor of a constitutional republic.  If you ask two wolves and a sheep what’s for dinner, a democratic vote won’t end well for the sheep, so the Founders put safeguards in place to protect the interests of all the parties.  Plain and simple

The Electoral College is not racist and classist.  The Electoral College is a great equalizer that allows each of our United States to have a voice in electing the president.