Reported in the Weekly Standard:
George Soros Supports the Tea Party?
Even as the rest of the country focuses on the economy, the inventor of the scratch-off lottery ticket continues his push to all but eliminate the Electoral College. John Koza’s National Popular Vote (NPV) effort is making unfortunate progress. Just last week, Governor Jerry Brown’s signature ensured that the elector-rich state of California will participate in NPV.
NPV’s plan is disarmingly simple: States join an interstate compact that allegedly binds them to allocate their presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote. Supporters claim NPV is just a unique way of using the Constitution’s presidential election provisions. In reality, questions remain about the constitutionality and enforceability of the compact. Worse, if it did survive legal challenges, NPV would effectively eliminate an institution that contributes to the political stability of the United States.
Koza and NPV are wrong about the Electoral College, but they’re no dummies, either. They learned much from last November’s elections and this year’s congressional fights over spending. They have apparently concluded that their best chance of success comes with the cooperation of conservatives. Thus, they are working diligently to reconstitute themselves as a Tea Party-friendly organization.
NPV has retained a retinue of Republican lobbyists, including former California state senator Ray Haynes, Michigan Republican national committeeman Saul Anuzis, and former Minnesota state representative Laura Brod. Through such mouthpieces, NPV has pitched its plan to the Republican National Committee, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and conservative think tanks such as the Heartland Institute and the Heritage Foundation.
A scholarly article from Wallbuilders fleshes out the history and intent of the Electoral College:
Electoral College: Preserve or Abolish?
…The electoral college synthesized two important philosophies established in the Constitution: (1) the maintenance of a republican, as opposed to a democratic, form of government (the explicit constitutional provisions on this issue, as well as the specific declarations of the Founders, will be examined later in this paper); and (2) the balancing of power between the smaller and the larger States and between the various diverse regions of the nation (this second point will be examined first).
When establishing our federal government, smaller States like Rhode Island had feared they would have no voice, and therefore no protection, against the more populous States like New York or Massachusetts. Similarly, the sparsely populated agricultural regions feared an inability to protect their interests against the fishing and shipping industries dominant in the more populous coastal States. These concerns on how to preserve individual State voices and diverse regional interests caused the framers to establish a bi-cameral rather than a uni-cameral legislative system.
In that wise plan, one body preserved the will of the majority as determined by population and the other preserved the will of the majority as determined by the States. As Constitution signer James Madison confirmed:
The Constitution is nicely balanced with the federative and popular principles; the Senate are the guardians of the former, and the House of Representatives of the latter; and any attempts to destroy this balance, under whatever specious names or pretences they may be presented, should be watched with a jealous eye.
The Founding Fathers considered all forms of government; prayerfully, intellectually, historically and they debated and agonized and then they compromised, agreed and then pledged their lives their fortunes and their sacred honor to establish, protect and enable the government they had created. The education, the intellect and the faith of those men can not be underestimated. The providential hand of God can not be denied. We can only bring poverty and unrest if we deign to ignore their wisdom and replace our Constitutional Republic, the rule of law, with a Democracy, rule by the mob.
God help us, protect us from those who’s only goal is to destroy what You in Your grace and mercy have bestowed upon us and our posterity. Please give us wisdom and strength to preserve it even if it costs us our very lives. Amen.
- G u l a g - B o u n d -
Gulag Note: to understand ways that other transnationalist tycoons have been attempting to co-opt the Tea Party, see Kelleigh Nelson’s “The Tea Parties and the Jealous Power and Money.”