DEAR EDITOR:

My question is: Is it ignorance of or contempt for our Constitution that fuels the movement to abolish the Electoral College?

Hillary Clinton blamed the Electoral College for her stunning defeat in the 2016 presidential election in her latest memoirs, “What Happened.”

Some have claimed the Electoral College is one of the most dangerous institutions in American politics.

Why? They claim the Electoral College system, as opposed to a simple majority vote, distorts the one-person, one-vote principle of democracy because electoral votes are not distributed according to population.

Many people whine that using the Electoral College instead of the popular vote and majority rule is undemocratic. I agree with our Founding Fathers that deciding who will be the president by majority rule is not democracy.

We have an Electoral College that keeps peace in this nation.We have a farm belt that’s less populated than urban areas.We have an energy sector less populated than urban areas. We don’t want to be ruled by New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. We should all have a role in this. We are a republic; we are not a democracy.

The Founding Fathers went to great lengths to ensure we were a republic and not a democracy. In fact, the word democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or any other of our founding documents.

How about a few quotations expressed by the Founders about democracy?

In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison wanted to prevent majority rule, saying, “Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

John Adams warned in a letter, “Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”

The Electoral College is the measure that thwarts majority rule. It makes sure the highly populated states — mainly 12 on the east and west coasts cannot run roughshod over the rest of the nation. That forces a presidential candidate to take into consideration the wishes of the other 38 states.

The support for a simple majority vote is the reason the Democratic Party wants amnesty for 15 million illegals in our country along with open borders for more illegals.

While the Electoral College is not perfect, it is the most legitimate system. It is in line with the intent of our forefathers, protects the smaller states and helps to protect against the possibility that several very densely populated cities will decide the presidential election for the entire nation.

Thank God our Founding Fathers were smarter than politicians today.

CATHY LUKASKO

Brookfield