With everything that's going on right now with the presidential hopefuls, the air is filled with promises of a better future and preaching that “your vote can make a change.” I have always voted in the elections since I turned 18, I think it is an honor and a privilege to elect our next leader. I felt this way until I read about the electoral college- a group of people that actually vote for the president and who are elected by our votes. I felt so jaded and patronized that I told as many people as I could, not because I didn't want them to vote, but because I believe they should know what they are truly voting for- for people that say they will vote for the candidate you want.
When it comes down to their vote however, they can vote for whoever they want and they are under no obligation to keep their word of loyalty to whichever candidate they said they supported (although some states have outlawed this). But in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore received the majority of the national vote but did not receive the majority in the Electoral College and therefore, George W. Bush became president. My political beliefs aside, the process itself seemed a little underhanded.
The origin and mechanics of the Electoral College are outlined in the constitution, but some people believe that it was the forefathers' way of preventing stupid people from effectively choosing the next president. And I wouldn't doubt it. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and all the rest were brilliant men and had incredible foresight of the future for the new U.S. They probably saw how people got excited over electing Washington president and how little lay people knew (especially at that time) about legislature and politics.
They probably saw the people that were in bars fighting, so quick to pick up a pistol to end their arguments, or that in groups people become like mobs and just follow the crowd, and so they figured that people with such little reason and poor foresight were inept to choose the next leader for their own good. They probably would say that the average person wants someone that would benefit their social, economic, or ethnic group more than what was good for the country as a whole- they were only thinking about the instant gratification of their vote (and not the long-term effects). By having educated people choose the next president, they may have believed would give America a better chance of having a firm and long-lasting government.
Because of these reasons, people sometimes wonder if the U.S.A. is really a democracy (rule by the many) or an oligarchy (rule by the few, usually wealthy) because the senate and the House of Representatives are filled with very wealthy people. It is difficult to say that they are wealthy because they are congress of if they are congress because they are wealthy.
It seems very misleading to try to get people to vote by telling them that “you can decide the next president.” Even though we can still have an effect on the presidential outcome, it is not nearly as effective as it is presented to be. By telling young people, especially college students, that their vote could make a difference without ever mentioning the Electoral College or the indirect democracy of the presidency is setting the stage for distrust and apathy from the young people in America. The system may not be so bad after all, but the fact that it was never mentioned or explained could seem suspicious to the thinking people of America.
