Democracy is, as Winston Churchill reportedly said, the worst form of government except for any other.

Those burdened by living in a dictatorship or in a country ruled by a few elites may envy those able to vote relatively freely for their leaders in countries known as democracies. However, as we found out on January 2021, that quaint burden left to the United States by the early patriots and known as the electoral college has risen to haunt us.

The United States is known as one of the youngest countries in the world but one of the oldest democracies. We hear it so often that we need reminding that we don’t really have a pure democracy. In our presidential elections. we vote for electors who are, according to our constitution, supposed to meet in early January following the popular election to cast the ballots that actually elect the president.

It seems that the country’s early founders didn’t actually believe in ALL the people electing their leaders. Instead, they developed a system in which a small group of supposedly wise men (at the time only white men and more often the wealthier ones) would gather in early January and elect the president.

For most of our history, the electoral college became merely a group of unknowns who simply rubber stamped the November popular election.

Alas, we paid for the lack of clarification when Donald Trump’s followers attempted to use that little known practice to take over the government on the day the electors were supposed to meet, when they would overcome any opposition in order to declare Trump as the elected president.

The electoral college still remains, of course. The U.S. Constitution could be changed to reflect our more democratic ideas, but changing the Constitution is a massive undertaking.

At least we know now that we must safeguard our elections from any kind of mob influence, as well as guard the vote counting from outside manipulators.

We can give thanks that those who wished to overturn the 2020 election were defeated. We are rightfully warned, however, to safeguard the voting process in our coming elections.