Let the people decide
Electing and Impeaching the President
While walking with me this evening, my son — the political scientist — made a revolutionary statement that had never before crossed my mind. What he suggested, if applied, would give the American people the direct power for the selecting and for the removing of a president.
Joshua, my son, suggested that when we need to Impeach a president, instead of empowering the U.S. Senate with the power to remove, give instead that power to the people of the United States. The people!
This is one of the most forward-thinking ideas I have heard in years, and it is further proof that we have not yet explored all the ways possible to improve this great nation.
We have all witnessed the distress caused by the Electoral College: since 2000, there have been five presidential elections. Unfortunately in 2000 and again in 2016, the choice of the people was overridden by the Electoral College, an outdated constitutional device established by the Founding Fathers to control the method of selection of the Executive. Historians know that the Electoral College was added to the U.S. Constitution to prevent the people from electing directly who they wanted-even a tyrant. Many of the Founding Fathers were wealthy, or land owners — or both — and were not willing to give such power to the masses, many of whom were uneducated. To limit the power of the people, the Electoral College was devised to allow the selection of Electors who would then vote for the Executive.
Similarly, the power to remove a president was also debated during the Constitutional Convention, primarily due to the language used to define what offenses could be used as a foundation for Impeachment. Splitting the responsibility between the House and the Senate, the Founding Fathers gave the power to Impeach to the House and the power to remove to the Senate.
In essence, the power to select or remove a president is completely beyond the power of the American people. Is it time for a change, then, to the U.S. Constitution?
Both of these constitutional devices have contributed to the current state of affairs of our nation: Donald Trump was not selected by the vote of the people in the 2016 Presidential election, having been outvoted by Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. Donald Trump was also Impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2019, but the U.S. Senate failed to remove him from office during his trial in the Senate. The partisanship that dictates every part of Congressional life today pre-determines the outcome: Republicans support Republican presidents, Democrats support Democratic presidents.
To put it quite bluntly, today’s Congressional politics are insane. From the gerrymandering of Congressional districts to the unholy amounts of money pouring into campaigns — thanks to Citizens United — make no mistake, our political outcomes in Congress are now no longer controlled by Congress, but by corporate America. The massive amounts of cash pouring into campaign coffers determines — more than the people do — what Congress does or does not enact into law. And that directly impacts how presidents are selected and how they may be removed. Change is of paramount importance: the Preamble to the Constitution begins with “We the people…” not “We the corporation….”
What the Founding Fathers designed — a system to protect the institutions of government from the direct control of the people — now cries out for a change to give control directly to the people — a change necessary to protect the institution of Congress from our own elected representatives! Those representatives, now being corrupted and/or manipulated by unlimited corporate donations, can no longer be entrusted with the solemn duty of deciding if a president shall be removed: that responsibility must now be given directly to the people.
If the past two Impeachment trials have taught us anything, it is that a majority of our Congressional representatives in both the House and the Senate choose party over country first. At the same time, the Electoral College has become an unnecessary obstacle to the people selecting the person they want to lead the nation. The Constitution was designed to permit modification: the Founding Fathers understood the nation would change as it aged, and would need to adapt to those changes through amendments to the Constitution.
It is time to change the Constitution of the United States in both of these areas: the dissolution of the Electoral College — permitting the clear voice of the people to select the leader of the Executive — and to give the power to remove a president once Impeached by Congress directly to the people.
It is time for America to trust in its people, to trust in people like my son Joshua. It’s time for America to change, and it is time to Let the people decide.
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©Timothy J. Sabo
