Dick Durbin Quotes
Since 2000, I have proposed changing the Constitution so that our popular vote decides the presidency.
Durbin, Dick [@SenatorDurbin]. "Since 2000, I have proposed changing the Constitution so that our popular vote decides the presidency." Twitter, 19 Dec. 2016.
Jefferson thought that the possibility that a man could become President even though more Americans voted for his opponent was undemocratic and a great flaw in our Constitution. It has actually happened several times and each time the Electoral College debate renewed, but there has never been enough concern to produce a Constitutional Amendment.
The irony of this statement is that Kennedy then selected Lyndon Johnson as his running mate. Johnson, most experts agree, was able to swing Texas into the Democratic tally, and many of those same experts generally agree with Kennedy’s point but believe that his election was the only exception to the general rule in modern times.
This quotation illustrates the "winner take all" conceopt of many political cultures that call themselves and think of theselves as a democracy. But a true democracy does not allow a tyranny of the majority--especially a very narrow minority.
Questioning the wisdom of the then existing system of selecting major party presidential candidates by primary elections where even few party members vote.
At the time, the convention delegates picked the party Presidential nominee without any direct role of the voters. The so called “smoke-filled room” of party bosses. When TR decided to run again for the Presidency there was an incumbent Republican President, Taft. However most Republicans in the country preferred Roosevelt who had served two very successful terms as President. But there were no primary elections in those days and there was no way for the party voters preferences to heavily influence the process. The Party bosses, who never liked TR because of his independence, nominated Taft. Roosevelt ran as a 3rd party candidate and actually out polled Taft. However, the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson got more votes than Roosevelt, who would have easily won if the republicans had nominated TR as the majority of the party wanted.
Benton's solution was for the people to elect the President and Vice President directly.
This is not just a theoretical possibility. It has occurred several times. The latest was on the 1990 election where Gore got half a million more votes than George W. Bush, but Bush became President.
Richard Joseph Durbin is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Illinois, a seat he was first elected to in 1996. He has been Senate Democratic Whip since 2005, the second-highest position in the Democratic leadership in the Senate, and Senate Majority Whip since 2021. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
