Bringing the United States perilously close to dismantling its constitutional foundation, leftist Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has signed HB965 into law, officially entering the Commonwealth into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The decision has sparked immediate outrage across the state, as critics realize the measure effectively renders the individual votes of Virginians “null and void.”
By signing this compact, Spanberger has agreed to hand Virginia’s 13 electoral votes to whichever presidential ticket wins the national popular vote, regardless of how the people of Virginia actually cast their ballots. [Unsurprisingly, the popular vote tends to side with the Democrats a majority of the time, but President Trump won it for the first time since 2004 when George W. Bush won it.]
With Virginia’s entry, the movement is now a terrifying 48 electoral votes away from taking effect. The current total stands at 222 votes, or 82 percent of the way to the 270-vote threshold required to fundamentally upend American elections.
It is no coincidence that the states rushing to bypass the Constitution represent a monolithic partisan bloc. To date, every single state that has joined the compact is a blue state, moving the country toward a system where a few deep-blue urban centers could dictate the presidency for the entire Union. The list of members includes Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Vermont, California, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine, and now Virginia.This partisan rush to ignore state boundaries flies in the face of Alexander Hamilton’s warnings in Federalist No. 68. Hamilton cautioned that the Electoral College was not a mere suggestion, but an “excellent” system designed to protect the Republic from the very “tumult and disorder” that a direct popular vote invites.
The Founders were explicitly wary of a direct popular vote, fearing it would allow a “demagogue” with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” to manipulate the masses. Hamilton argued that the presidency should not be a prize for the most famous or the most populist, but should be determined by an intermediate body of electors, men “most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.”
By moving toward a national popular vote, Spanberger and the NPVIC proponents are discarding what Hamilton called a “judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements” proper for selecting a leader. Instead of a deliberative process, the nation is being pushed toward a system where candidates will focus exclusively on high-population urban centers like New York City or Los Angeles, leaving rural and small-state voters entirely ignored. This would mean an end to a republic form of governor.
It is no coincidence that the states rushing to bypass the Constitution represent a monolithic partisan bloc. To date, every single state that has joined the compact is a blue state, moving the country toward a system where a few deep-blue urban centers could dictate the presidency for the entire Union. The list of members includes Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Vermont, California, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Maine, and now Virginia.This partisan rush to ignore state boundaries flies in the face of Alexander Hamilton’s warnings in Federalist No. 68. Hamilton cautioned that the Electoral College was not a mere suggestion, but an “excellent” system designed to protect the Republic from the very “tumult and disorder” that a direct popular vote invites.
The Founders were explicitly wary of a direct popular vote, fearing it would allow a “demagogue” with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” to manipulate the masses. Hamilton argued that the presidency should not be a prize for the most famous or the most populist, but should be determined by an intermediate body of electors, men “most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.”
By moving toward a national popular vote, Spanberger and the NPVIC proponents are discarding what Hamilton called a “judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements” proper for selecting a leader. Instead of a deliberative process, the nation is being pushed toward a system where candidates will focus exclusively on high-population urban centers like New York City or Los Angeles, leaving rural and small-state voters entirely ignored. This would mean an end to a republic form of governor.
Hamilton was particularly concerned with the potential for national chaos during an election. He argued that by having electors meet in their respective states, their “detached and divided situation” would protect the process from “heats and ferments” that might otherwise “convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements.”
A national popular vote does the exact opposite. It removes the firewall provided by state lines. In a popular vote system, a dispute in a single precinct could trigger a 50-state national recount, creating the very “tumult” Hamilton sought to avoid. The Electoral College, by contrast, provides “effectual security against this mischief” by containing election disputes within individual states.
A simple analogy regarding this kind of 'democracy' is: if there are 3 lions and one sheep voting on 'what's for dinner' grass or meat, guess who would win.
Perhaps most frightening is how this move weakens the nation’s defenses against foreign influence. Hamilton noted that the Electoral College was designed to oppose “cabal, intrigue, and corruption,” which he called the “most deadly adversaries of republican government.” He believed that a national popular vote would make it easier for “foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils” by raising a “creature of their own” to the presidency. The Founders’ system ensured that the Executive was “independent for his continuance in office on all but the people themselves.” With Virginia becoming the latest blue state to join this compact, the “moral certainty” Hamilton promised, that the office would fall only to those “endowed with the requisite qualifications,” is under direct threat.
If 48 more electoral votes are secured, the system that has guided the nation for over two centuries will be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency.
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If 48 more electoral votes are secured, the system that has guided the nation for over two centuries will be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency.
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