Jim Crow 2.0 - The Electoral College
President Obama's strong showing in the electoral vote in the 2012 election has the Republican National Committee and its house organ Fox News in a lather of hysteria.
The GOP's Electoral College Scheme
In a number of the battle ground states Obama took all of the electoral votes under the terms of the winner take all allocation system. However as a result of Republican gerrymandering of congressional districts they were able to retain a majority in the House of Representatives. This was not a case where the winner of the electoral vote was different from the winner of the popular vote. Obama won there too, but not by as large a margin. Since the Republicans didn't get the outcome they wanted they are pursuing plans in several states where they control state government to change the allocation of electoral votes to individual congressional districts rather than on a state wide basis.
Exploring some history of the constitutional arrangements for elections seems like a useful undertaking at this point. Many of the framers of the constitution were still attached to prevailing British notions about the pitfalls of popular democracy. Despite the ringing declarations of enlightenment philosophy contained in the Declaration of Independence, the constitution was influenced by views that government is something best conducted by the governing classes. The US Senate was modeled after the British House of Lords. Even though the new nation moved away from the notion of hereditary privilege, the intent was to create a body with some detachment from the fray of political competition. To that end membership was allocated equally to all states regardless of their population and they were to be indirectly elected by state legislatures rather than by popular vote.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/23/1181460/-Jim-Crow-2-0-The-Electoral-College
