Understanding the Electoral College and Its Importance

[00:00] myth number one we are not a democracy a

[00:02] democracy inherently means the

[00:04] centralization of power a constitutional

[00:08] republic respects the decentralization

[00:10] of powers the founding fathers wrote In

[00:11] The Federalist Papers that the Electoral

[00:13] College will be the greatest hedge

[00:15] against the tyranny of the

[00:18] mob so um this question is uh I've

[00:22] actually sent a letter to Ben Shapiro to

[00:25] Mark Dice this is kind of an open

[00:27] question I'm always in conflict in

[00:29] dealing with

[00:30] the Electoral College sure and based

[00:33] upon you know if you look at the num for

[00:35] me I'm kind of like okay I do the

[00:36] numbers they say let's say I'm in New

[00:38] York or I'm in California my vote is

[00:42] only worth SE um 7 if I go to Wyoming my

[00:46] vote is worth 1.4 in comparison someone

[00:50] who's residing in California to someone

[00:52] who's in Wyoming there is quite a

[00:54] difference but at the same time I think

[00:57] people in Wyoming should have a voice

[01:00] versus only the as not just being some

[01:04] mass or you know densely populated areas

[01:07] telling me what my voice should be if I

[01:11] started to really thinking about okay if

[01:12] the Electoral College is good then why

[01:15] don't we apply the Electoral College

[01:18] within States like for example yeah know

[01:21] it's like for I kind of like said if we

[01:23] look at so for example the state of

[01:24] Washington so right so every state has

[01:27] the freedom to choose to appropriate

[01:29] their electors however they see fit

[01:31] right so that's a misunderstood notion

[01:33] about the Electoral College so if the

[01:35] state of Washington actually wants to

[01:37] put their electors based on the popular

[01:39] vote they have that freedom and so

[01:41] that's a way to reverse engineer the

[01:43] Electoral College I wouldn't support

[01:44] that let me tell you why I support the

[01:46] Electoral College first and foremost

[01:49] myth number one we are not a

[01:56] democracy nor should we nor should we be

[01:59] so I'm here to be educated no no I know

[02:01] I'm not I'm not trying to I'm just

[02:03] walking you through so explain that last

[02:05] statement because I'm I want to

[02:06] understand that totally that's okay so

[02:08] we are a constitutional republic with a

[02:12] Democrat mechanism to put people in

[02:14] power now what's the difference a true

[02:17] pure democracy as Bernie Sanders would

[02:19] want it and he has argued for it using

[02:21] him as an example 51% of the population

[02:25] can vote your rights away so 51% of the

[02:29] population leave something all of a

[02:31] sudden your second amendment rights

[02:32] could disappear in the current system

[02:35] that's not the way it works in order to

[02:37] get rid of something that is enumerated

[02:38] as a right you have to go through the

[02:40] you have to go through three- fifths of

[02:41] the states you have to go through a huge

[02:43] amount of mechanisms it's not a direct

[02:45] democracy secondly a democracy lends

[02:47] itself to mob

[02:49] Rule and so a country that is a direct

[02:53] democracy that is completely is purely

[02:56] populist and purely on what a vast

[02:58] majority of people want lends itself to

[03:01] who can promise the most amount of free

[03:03] stuff to the population the founding

[03:05] fathers talked about this in the

[03:06] Federalist Papers they said we never

[03:08] want to create a country where it's

[03:10] going to be a race of who can dist

[03:11] redistribute the most amount of stuff

[03:13] back to the citizens the final thing and

[03:15] and this is so important a democracy

[03:18] inherently means the centralization of

[03:20] power a constitutional republic respects

[03:23] the decentralization of power so a great

[03:25] example is something that I think

[03:29] gravitated power away from the people is

[03:31] when we got when we instituted the

[03:33] direct election of senators so Senators

[03:36] used to be held accountable to the state

[03:38] legislator so these were not political

[03:41] positions believe it or not they were

[03:42] not people that were trying to make

[03:43] themselves into National political icons

[03:46] but they were held accountable to the

[03:47] state legislature which were very very

[03:48] held accountable to the people and they

[03:50] were recalled all the time they'd say

[03:52] this Senator is not representing our

[03:53] state's interests so now you see these

[03:56] senators and both parties by the way

[03:58] both parties do this from Marco Rubio to

[04:00] Elizabeth Warren that use their US

[04:02] senate seat to try to do National

[04:03] fundraising campaigns and try to turn

[04:05] themselves to National celebrities

[04:07] instead of being in what the founding

[04:09] fathers wanted to be which was an

[04:11] employee of the state government right

[04:13] so it had eroded State eroded State's

[04:15] rights Here's the final thing from a

[04:16] pragmatic standpoint the electoral

[04:19] college requires candidates to go to

[04:21] parts of the country that they otherwise

[04:23] would completely and totally ignore and

[04:26] so if you look at the math Hillary

[04:28] Clinton could have lost 65% of what we

[04:31] call Middle America and won 80% of Los

[04:35] Angeles and 80% of New York and she

[04:37] would have been president right and so

[04:40] what the electoral college requires is a

[04:42] unique complexion and a very diverse

[04:44] sample size of the American electorate

[04:47] so in order to be president you have to

[04:49] have a message that resonates from Miami

[04:51] Florida to Milwaukee Wisconsin to New

[04:54] Hampshire and so I if if if we had a

[04:58] direct democracy you would see a

[05:01] hyperfocus on the media markets of New

[05:04] York Boston

[05:07] Philadelphia

[05:09] Miami Los Angeles San Francisco Portland

[05:11] and Seattle which are would hyper

[05:14] polarize in a country that would further

[05:16] divide us and I would make I would

[05:17] compellingly make that argument but I

[05:19] think it's important that for the

[05:21] Electoral College standpoint it

[05:23] reinforces the idea of states rights

[05:26] that the state matters and it works both

[05:27] ways so the Democrats like to say this

[05:30] is something that only benefits

[05:31] Republicans it's not look at Rhode

[05:33] Island Rhode Island's a very small state

[05:36] and there's three electoral votes for

[05:37] Rhode Island you look at Vermont so

[05:39] there's states that are very small and

[05:41] very liberal that benefit from the

[05:42] Electoral College just as much as the

[05:44] existence of North Dakota South Dakota

[05:46] Wyoming or Montana and so there there I

[05:48] can go further and further into it but

[05:50] finally the founding fathers wrote In

[05:52] The Federalist Papers that the Electoral

[05:54] College will be the greatest hedge

[05:56] against the tyranny of the mob and that

[05:59] and that's and I encourage you to look

[06:01] at it so so to close on that close on to

[06:05] close on that very thoughtful question

[06:07] by the way so to close on that the many

[06:10] of the those and the Democrats who are

[06:12] running for positions this coming

[06:15] November have put on the ballot to do

[06:18] away of this old sty thing called The

[06:21] Electoral College and they feel it no

[06:23] longer represents them what you know and

[06:26] so I feel that that is a something to

[06:29] fear of especially those on the flyover

[06:32] states and I'm like going so I'm like

[06:34] looking how you know can could they do

[06:36] that could they actually say we're going

[06:38] to get rid of it it it's going to be

[06:39] nearly impossible the way that Democrats

[06:42] will diminish the power of the Electoral

[06:45] College is what I'm not sure if

[06:47] Washington has done this but I know

[06:49] Connecticut is entertaining it where

[06:51] Connecticut so yeah essentially they

[06:53] would say that Connecticut decides or

[06:55] Washington decides to appropriate their

[06:57] electors based on the winner the

[06:59] national popular

[07:02] vote okay so there we go you got that's

[07:05] thank you and so that's the way that if

[07:07] liberals want to use the electoral

[07:09] process they can use it through that

[07:10] state driven way I wouldn't vote for

[07:12] that if it was a ballot referendum but I

[07:14] also constitutionally there's nothing to

[07:16] prevent them from doing it but the

[07:17] interesting thing is every state can do

[07:19] it differently so Maine for example does

[07:21] it by congressional district so Trump

[07:23] won one electoral vote in the state of

[07:25] Maine cuz he won the central part of

[07:27] Maine which is very Union very

[07:28] industrialized Obama won one electoral

[07:30] votee in the state of Nebraska where

[07:32] Omaha is so Omaha and Maine are the only

[07:34] two states in the country that

[07:35] appropriate their electors based on

[07:37] Congressional District and this is kind

[07:39] of the re reinforce State's rights is

[07:41] that shouldn't each state be able to go

[07:42] to the people and say how do you want to

[07:44] be represented maybe you want to divide

[07:46] it up maybe you don't want to go all in

[07:47] or all for nothing and as soon as you go

[07:49] to this direct style democracy you can

[07:51] go through the arguments I made earlier

[07:52] so thank you so much I I appreciate it

[07:59] yes