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When considering the continued use of the Electoral College, remember one of the only things the framers of the Constitution could agree on was that the people shouldn't be trusted to choose a president. 1/
Roger Sherman said the people would "never be sufficiently informed." George Mason said it was "unnatural" for people to vote directly for the president and it would be like trusting "a trial of colors to a blind man." 2/
A frail Benjamin Franklin advised the convention to remember how brave the people had been during the war, only for John Mercer to immediately contradict him saying, “The people cannot know and judge of the characters of candidates. The worst possible choice will be made.” 3/
To go back over the notes of the Constitutional Convention, what you see is a group of white elites whose only concern was maintaining power and keeping the people under control. It's absurd that we still maintain their methods even though we know they were in bad faith. 4/
What's more, the framers weren't even within their rights to frame a new Constitution. They were in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation. Their contemporaries accused them of committing a coup, which James Madison more than admitted in the Federalist Papers. 5/
The entire structure of our system of government was invented in order to create an illusion of freedom and democracy while making sure the people had no real power in matters of state. It's right there in black and white. We don't have to continue respecting it. 6/
People like to pretend the Constitution and our government are concrete and unchangeable, but they're not. We've amended these antidemocratic institutions time and time again. We should set our eyes toward getting rid of bastions of aristocracy like the Electoral College. 7/
The sad truth is the Founders wanted our country to work like this. They were obsessed with serving the wealthy while placating the poor so they wouldn't overthrow them. This isn't conspiracy, it's history, and we have to face history and determine how to move forward. 8/
We can, and should, have control of our government machinery. We should be able to determine our way forward. Direct election of the president is the next step in the democratic evolution of this country, and it needs to be a MAJOR campaign issue and platform plank. 9/9
