One of the most confounding American qualities is our capacity to lie to ourselves about where things come from, or why that might matter today.
We’re really comfortable pretending that this nation’s most admirable ideals — especially the democracy that undergirds our system of government — is about freedom and liberty, and nothing else.
But of course, history intrudes, like a pest tapping you repeatedly on the shoulder, sometimes kicking you in the backside. And uncomfortable truths insist on rearing their heads, especially when it comes to the history of our democratic institutions.
The Electoral College is one of those institutions.
Its roots — and its profound influence on America's earliest presidential elections — sprouted from the South's determination to preserve its political power and the institution of slavery.
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