I find Joseph J. Ellis’ negative critique of America’s electoral system perplexing (“The U.S. alone is saddled with an Electoral College. How did that happen?,” Nov. 4, TribLive). He is concerned that it does not use the direct popular vote for selecting our president. But many believe it has served America well for 250 years.
Yet he mentions nothing about the recent selection technique used by one major party (probably his) in the last six months to choose its candidate. Millions of Democratic Party members voted for Joe Biden to be their presidential candidate, but their party leaders, these “defenders of democracy,” unhappy with Biden’s weak debate performance (and tired of covering for him), chose to essentially oust him. Who were these “demagogues” (sound familiar)? Nobody knows who all that “elite ruling class” included, other than probably Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.
No regular party member had any say in this. No voting, no range of candidates offered, no vetting, no debates, no caucusing by the delegates that were previously chosen by the members in the primary. Just the anointing. By God, don’t let the people have a say.
If that wasn’t circumventing democracy, Mr. Ellis, what is?
William R. Iski
Penn Township, Westmoreland County