6. The PragerU Video

First Facebook discussion

Second Facebook discussion

There has been much interesting discussion around a 2015 video from PragerU explaining the purpose of the Electoral College, and somehow anticipating the controversial results of the 2016 election. In my Facebook circle, Dirk Coburn shared this video on Oct. 25, two weeks before the election, and also on Nov. 17, and each post generated a wealth of interesting debate. I’ll comment briefly here, and invite you to read the full discussion on each link.

Prager University is not actually a university at all. As it states on its own web site, "Prager University is not an accredited academic institution and does not offer certifications or diplomas." Rather, it is a distribution channel for 5-minute videos organized by right-wing talk show host Dennis Prager. Be that as it may, the content has much factual material, although it should be open to critical analysis.

The video asserts that a President or Congress elected by the majority could abuse its power and treat minority interests unfairly – what has been termed “tyranny of the majority.” Our three branches of government, with its system of checks and balances, serve to protect us from that. Agreed.

The video then asserts that the Electoral College does a similar thing in the Presidential election by “encouraging coalition building” whereby candidates must gather votes from a large number of states, and supposedly from diverse types of states. Well, instead of “tyranny of the majority” we can have “tyranny of the minority.” Already some people have asserted that the Republicans will try to punish the states that voted for Clinton, and, while I don’t subscribe to this fear, it certainly is possible.

Actually, our system of checks and balances also provides protection against Presidential abuse, since most actions also require the consent of Congress, including the Senate, which gives each small state as much representation as large states, and where actions can be stopped by just 41 members.

The video makes a final point that the Electoral College discourages fraud, since tricksters wouldn’t know in advance which states are the critical ones in which to commit fraud. This makes little sense, since the Battleground States are well known to everyone in modern elections.

Meanwhile, the video ignores the main reason the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College: to ensure that the President is chosen by knowledgeable and rational individuals -- a purpose that Republicans are choosing to ignore and something that clearly did not occur in the current election.