Unity08 faces formidable obstacles
Last week, I extolled the virtues of Unity08, the new movement to ?take our country back? from the politics of excessive partisanship and polarization.?Unity08?s immediate goal is to recruit delegates to nominate a bipartisan presidential ticket for 2008, and to do so online.
Despite this noble goal, Unity08 faces a number of formidable obstacles on the rocky road to success.?The deck of history is stacked against third parties.
This is particularly true of third party presidential candidates.?For example, between 1864 and 2004, only five third-party candidates won electoral votes.?George Wallace was the last to do, with 46, back in 1968.? Only six have managed to win more than 5 percent of the popular vote in those same years.
How can this be? The answer lies mostly in that quaint and curious institution called the Electoral College.?Created out of compromise at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it was designed to pick a president of the United States who would not be a hostage to the Congress, the state legislatures, or even directly, to the people.?Predictably, the Electoral College has been revered by many and reviled by others ever since.
Even though political parties are not even mentioned in the original Constitution, the Electoral College clearly favors the current two-party system. So does our system of ?winner- taker-all? elections.?Actually, though, the winner-take-all provision for awarding each state?s total Electoral College votes is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. Instead, it is the product of many decades of custom and usage, agreed to, tacitly or otherwise, by both major parties and 48 of the 50 states.
Proposals to abolish or reform the ?antiquated, undemocratic? Electoral College recur every few years, especially after close presidential elections.?For example, public interest in changing the Electoral College system was heightened in recent years by the close 1960, 1968, and 2000 elections.?As with most complex political issues, public interest in the nuances of the Electoral College can be a fickle and fleeting phenomenon. ?
Given our penchant for sports analogies applied to politics, the Electoral College does have one thing most Americans love: A winning tradition.?From 1789 to 2004, the Electoral College has failed to produce a clear winner just five times: in 1800, 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000.?In every one of those anomalies, the overall system worked to produce an ultimate winner.?In short, the Electoral College has at least a 50-5 winning record to date ? not perfect, but pretty impressive.
So, the Electoral College, warts and all, is probably the most formidable obstacle to Unity08?s chances for success in 2008, unless, of course, they find a candidate who can win enough popular votes in enough states to capture the magic 270 Electoral College votes needed to ascend to the White House.
As for abolishing the Electoral College any time soon, don?t count on it.?A Constitutional amendment to do so would require ratification by 38 states, including many that would stand to lose more than they would gain by any change in the status quo.
Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College and co-host of the radio show ?Viewpoints,? which airs on WCPI 91.3 FM.