And, he’s back.
Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley (R-Perryville) has signed onto legislation designed to circumvent the Electoral College in presidential elections. Like his position on embryonic stem cell research and the national debt, Tilley seems far out of step with Missouri’s Republican base on this. And this guy wants to be Lt. Governor? Please.
This might be old news to some.
I see that Big Government’s Josie Wales blogged about the national effort last August. But this is the first I heard of it in Missouri, and the first I’d heard that Tilley’s a co-sponsor (h/t Caroline Mueller). As Josie said:
Under the progressive-statist plan to eliminate the electoral college, a state’s popular will would be rejected for the national will. I cannot think of anything more un-democratic than changing someone’s vote without his consent! But this is the plan states like Masachusetts now encourage.
Make no mistake: on this issue, Tilley sides with the hardest of the hard left.
The movement’s goal is to get states to require Electors to vote according to the national popular vote instead of the according to the way residents of a state vote.
For example, in 2008, Missouri’s 11 Electors voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin because they won the majority of votes in the state. Under HB974, which Tilley co-sponsored, those votes would have gone to Barack Obama because Obama won the popular vote.
If the law passed in all 50 states, the electoral college would always be a unanimous vote for the popular vote winner, making the body meaningless.
**Direct democracy fails. **
The U.S. Constitution guarantees every state a republican form of government. And as conservative activist Caroline Mueller pointed out privately, if we’re going to do away with the Electoral College, the way to do it is through a Constitutional Amendment, not legislative slight-of-hand. (Caroline says she opposes such an amendment, btw.)
**But let’s not do it at all. **
Luckily, conservative floor leader Tim Jones (R-Ballwin) and other conservatives in the House will fight against this measure to make Missouri’s electoral votes meaningless.
Team Tilley strikes out again.
P.S. On our end of the political spectrum, Ed Martin has a State Sovereignty page up.