U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), who wishes U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) would jump off a bridge, wasted no time trying to monkey with the U.S. Constitution as the Democrats took control of the House Thursday – he introduced a bill to eliminate the Electoral College.
Cohen is a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee. He actually introduced two Constitutional amendments, one to abolish the Electoral College and one to prohibit presidents from pardoning themselves, members of their families, members of their administrations and their campaign staff, according to a press releasefrom his office.
Cohen said, “In two presidential elections since 2000, including the most recent one in which Hillary Clinton won 2.8 million more votes than her opponent, the winner of the popular vote did not win the election because of the distorting effect of the outdated Electoral College. Americans expect and deserve the winner of the popular vote to win office. More than a century ago, we amended our Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators. It is past time to directly elect our President and Vice President.”
Cohen has previously tried to impeach President Donald Trump.
Also on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA-30) introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump, The Daily Wire reported.
Meanwhile, Cohen was mocked on Twitter for his attack on America’s Constitutional foundations, with users pointing out the importance of the Electoral College, especially for states like Tennessee that have smaller populations than other states.
The Tennessee Star ran a story in April 2017 as part of the “Constitution Series” explaining the reasons and process of the Electoral College:
Critics of the Electoral College system argue it is “unfair,” and that a simple majority of all the votes cast should determine the election outcome. But to do so would be a direct violation of the foundational constitutional concept of Federalism, which specifically recognizes the sovereignty of each state.
Direct election of the President by nationwide popular vote is a concept suitable with a pure democracy, but is entirely unfit for a constitutional republic like the United States of America.
The Founding Fathers’ wisdom was shown in the 2016 presidential elections:
Hillary Clinton won the state of California resoundingly, beating Donald Trump there by more than 4.2 million votes – a 61 percent to 31 percent thumping.
Had the Founders selected direct popular vote as the means for electing a President, the residents of California would have dictated to the other 49 states who would have served as our President.