Safeguard: An Electoral College Story

For an outsider living in a country with a multitude of political parties, but just one state in one nation, its easy to see how a democratic system should work. ive always found the american election system unfair and undemocratic, until i saw this documentary, that really solved some of the clues, whats easy to forget is that usa is a FEDERATION OF 50-51 SOVEREIGN STATES, and therefore completely impossible to manage with a system of election as for example here in norway.

so this is a comprehensive look at a nondemocratic but comprehensive system of election of a federal president of the united states of america. so the solution for every wailing and angry democracy for all fighters, must be to dissolve the federation, and elect prime ministers for each and every state, based on a multipartysystem as in norway... but now the grumpy old man sees that this will lead to chaos. a dull but informative documentary it is.

This documentary made a number of factual errors, and, to me, made a stronger case for eliminating the electoral college than for keeping it.

Excuse the fact this doc is made by a person who has made right-wing docs before. This doc does a good job of breakdown the history of our electoral system and it does breakdown pros and cons, but of course people will not like it. The biggest and seemingly only argument I see is that majority (popular vote) is suppose to always win. I personally would like more real debate on both sides but those days are gone. They breakdown why the founding fathers did not want that and it actually does make sense. They talked about Lincoln, but he won because there were more voters in the north and electoral votes in the north. I already know some folks won't like it cause the already have it in their minds the system must go, but it is true if you complain about the 1%, then you know the 1% can buy votes for majority, even though it is hard if not possible to trust the 'body of electors'. Another thing is true, if they get rid and still don't get what they want, they still will scream 'rigged' and 'corrupt'. So honestly what does it really matter...

This documentary sells itself as nonpartisan. That is a lie. It is produced and funded by extremely partisan, hard core right wing conservative groups. Should you watch it? Sure. It is healthy to consider the ideas and arguments from across the political spectrum. But, it is not healthy for a film to not disclose is purpose = to garner and persuade public opinion to support an institution that serves the conservative agenda for the foreseeable future. It is also important to note that this film plays "the race card" in that it sells the Electoral College as an institution that benefits communities of color. Not only is that a lie. It is low key offensive that they included this point. In fact, the Electoral College drastically gives far more power to the single vote of a white American as compared to the single vote of an American of color... in fact, this is the primary issue that many modern critics of the Electoral College have-that is, that it concentrates power in white people, and systematically disenfranchises people of color. Of course you should watch it to be familiar with arguments that you may hear, but don't let these folks lie to you and provide you with false information without knowing what you're watching.

You can tell by looking at the speakers bio that this is skewed to the Republican side. However, the facts they present seem valid. There are lots of reasons to appreciate the electoral college. The fact that you can keep everyone vested in the process and not disenfranchise a few, has a lot of value. The fact that states can make their own decisions, can obviously be good or potentially bad. You can see a wide variety of rules against abortion. So I see both sides, the founders created the system to prevent corruption. However, the fact that they didn't have leading Democrat thinkers in the documentary, makes me feel like this is a one-sided story.

If you can avoid absorbing the one-sided Opinions and focus on the construct of the electoral college, you have to admit it is pretty creative and has the time.