In his Dec. 29 commentary, Noozhawk columnist Randy Alcorn claims that our constitutional democracy is threatened by various forces from within: the corrupt and power hungry two-party political system; the appointment of federal judges by the party in power and the Electoral College, which he described as an “anachronism that has no place in today’s democratic republic.”
Each of those points has been debated time and again, likely going back to the early years of our nation’s founding.
However, that’s not the meat of Alcorn’s argument. The focus of his attack is one man, President Donald Trump, and that is what most troubles me: that the argument against the political system is a means through which to destroy a presidency.
Throughout his tenure, Trump has repeatedly stated, “I never want any other president to go through what I have.” I’m going to repeat his words again, without the quotation marks: I never want any president to go through what Donald Trump has endured.
At issue here is Article II of the Constitution: the Executive Branch. Trump is defending the presidency, not his own four or possibly eight years in the White House.
Everything that Alcorn argues for in his commentary smells of political expediency in order to rid the country of a president he despises, and in so doing, destroy the foundational structure of our form of governance: the checks and balance that distinguish our country from all others, present and past.
That’s what they do in banana republics. The Constitution was intentionally written so that we are governed at all levels through those various checks, in order to maintain political balance.
The tension between them is what has allowed the United States to endure, including through the most challenging periods of our history: Civil War, the Great Depression, two world wars, and today, global terrorism. The president answers to the people whereas Congress answers to districts.
That is why the Electoral College is now seriously threatened. Through the Electoral College, the people’s will is asserted — the president is chosen by the people as a collective group represented by all 50 states. Not coastal urban areas, but 50 distinct states.
I disagree with Alcorn’s assertion that “Representative democracy is not about cows, crops and acreage.” That’s precisely what it is about!
Consider our name: the United States. Folks who raise cattle and grow our wheat, they have dreams and needs far different from those of a former California teacher like myself. They are not to be dismissed!
Furthermore, unlike other countries, the 50 states are not provinces, subject to the federal government completely. It’s for that reason that the Tenth Amendment to the Bill of Rights — the greatest gift our Founders bequeathed the American people — speaks directly to those states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Thus, the Electoral College ensures that whoever is elected to the presidency, is chosen from among every state in the union. Senators and congressional representatives are accountable to their states and districts; the president, to the American people.
As citizens, we are duty-bound to defend our Constitution. Every time we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and place hand over heart, we reaffirm both individually and together our commitment to the republic. Likewise, when we enter the voting booth and make our choices freely, for that sweet moment, each of us holds in hand a most precious right.
Those who would attempt to undermine an election based on hatred of one man, Donald Trump, they pose the greatest threat to America.
— Celeste Barber taught English at Santa Barbara City College for 20 years and has lived in Santa Barbara since 1980. The opinions expressed are her own.