Understanding the Presidential Electoral System of the USA

A lot of confusion and far too much ignorance surround the US Presidential Elections. Accusations of the election being undemocratic abound, but are grossly unjustified and merely represent a fundamental understanding of the form of government and political nature of the United States of America, confusion based largely on the fact that the United States of America is nothing like the Constitution describes it should be.

The election of the President of the United States of America reflects the type of system of government and the nature of the union, as described by the US Constitution. The common mistake made in describing the United States of America is that it is a democracy. A democracy is direct government by the people. The founding fathers saw this was not suitable for a large country spread across many cultures, belief systems, ecosystems, and even types of climate. Instead, the founding fathers, who represented thirteen independent colonies, decided America would be a representative republic, where states had equal power to each other and in proportion to their populations.

This was a very practical solution to a serious problem: the use of democracy to steal resources or otherwise exploit smaller colonies – states. That is, the founding fathers had to answer the concerns of colonies which feared their resources would be taken by more populous or powerful states and that these states would have far more influence in federal government.

And so, the Constitution created an electoral college, based on the same system which determines the makeup of the federal government. Congress is elected by the people, the Senate was chosen by the states, and the President was also chosen by the state using electors representing the same number of congressional representatives and senators of each state.

So, the President of the United States, is not represented by the people, because there is a separation that people fail to see between the administration of the federal government, which is the president's duty, and the people of the nation. The president presides over the federal government, which is supposed to be differently but less powerful than the state governments, from the perspective of individual lives.

In other words, the President of the United States of America is NOT the president of the people, he is the administrator of the federal government. And as such, he is elected accordingly, not by democratic vote.

Today, the electoral college is especially important, considering the results of recent elections, especially 2016 when Donald Trump did not receive a majority of votes from Americans but did win the election because of the electoral college. Yes, most people feel unrepresented, but the fault is their own because the President of the United States does not represent the People of the United States America, but rather the Government of the United States of America.