The Electoral College, initially designed as a check on popular will and a guardian of elite prerogative in American government, has delivered the presidency to Donald Trump, a populist outsider who campaigned on the promise to burn the bipartisan political establishment to the ground. Though he is losing the popular vote by a 500,000 vote (and growing) margin, Trump was able to obliterate Hillary Clinton’s “blue wall” in the industrial Midwest, securing a decisive advantage among the electors who will cast the ballots that actually select the President of the United States on December 19.
Democrats are seething at having lost the presidency while winning the popular vote for the second time in the twenty-first century. Liberal media outlets are publishing a flurry of pieces attacking America’s allegedly antiquated system for electing its presidents, and social media is abuzz with petitions to replace it with a national popular vote system. This reaction is understandable: Our democratic instincts tells us that all votes should count exactly equally, and that the person who gets the most total votes should win.
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