Last Friday the National Review’s Jim Geraghty wrote about a horrifying way Republicans could assure their presidential nominee a victory in 2016 and for years to come. Right smack in the heart of this path to victory lies Wisconsin and Scott Walker.
In Walker’s Wisconsin the GOP controls every branch of state government and his post election order to the legislature was to expedite a bold agenda of change. Is part of Walker’s bold plan to select Wisconsin’s Electors to the Electoral College by Congressional District instead of winner-take-all?
That devious plan would assure Walker 5 of Wisconsin’s 8 electoral votes even if he were to lose the popular vote in his home state. What if the GOP/ALEC/Koch Brothers make this a multi-state effort then Walker’s path to the Presidency is all but assured.
The “what if” is a real possibility, as Geraghty writes:
“Starting in January, Republicans will hold state legislative majorities and the governor’s mansions in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa, and Nevada. If some or all of those states passed laws allocating their electoral votes by districts, all of these purple-to-blue states would allocate their electoral votes in a way that would make it extremely likely for Republicans to win at least half of them. And without half the electoral votes in those states, it would nearly impossible for the Democratic nominee to win.”
Walker’s Path To Victory
If the above map doesn’t send a shudder through you you’re not paying attention. This map shows why we need a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the direct election of the President and doing away with the Electoral College.
Direct election constitutional changes have been done before as the 17th Amendment provides for the direct election, by the people, of U.S. senators. In fact the direct election of the president has bipartisan support. In the sixties and seventies Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford all supported direct presidential election. If the people had pushed for it then we would have elected Al Gore president in 2000. Just imagine how different America could be. Just think about that.
And if you think about it, you will realize that no worthier cause is there to pursue than expanding our democracy, to allow the people to directly choose their President. Write your congressmen today. Be silent no more! Silence=Consent.
