Should The Electoral College Change?

It is a question that has been asked time and again over the course of the last 200 years.  Should we do away with or change the electoral college?  According to this article, it has been tried 700 times without success.

The interesting thing is reviewing the recent history of elections, you have some of the most classic flip flops in political history.  Rewind to the 2000 election when George W. Bush won the electoral college but lost the popular vote and Democrats were talking about doing away with it.  Fast forward to the 2012 election, and you see Democrats defending the same system that they wanted to do away with.  On the other hand, Republicans defended it in 2000 and want to change it because of 2012.

Regardless of who wins or loses elections, we need to hold fast to what is in our Constitution.  While there are things that are clearly dated, like counting slaves as 3/5 of a person, there are other parts that are genius.  The electoral college is one of those things that is pure genius.  It was meant as a compromise between those that wanted the people to elect the President and those that wanted Congress to do it.  What it ended up doing was balancing the needs of small states with those of larger ones.  If you had a direct election of the President, candidates would skip smaller states and focus solely on places like California, Ohio, Florida and others.  Smaller states would not ever see a Presidential candidate...never.

The genius of our Constitution is something that is worth celebrating and maintaining.  While certain things have needed to be changed over the years, the basics of the document remain true.  It is a way to limit the power of the Federal government and maintain the freedoms that we all enjoy.