I wanted to respond to Marc A. Thiessen’s March 22 column accusing Democrats of “declaring war on the Constitution.”

It’s true that after Donald Trump’s 2016 election, which he lost by almost 3 million popular votes, many Democrats would like to abolish the Electoral College.

When the Electoral College was adopted at the Constitutional Convention, its goal was not to ensure equality between urban and rural states, as Thiessen claims. Instead, it tried to balance the interests of those who wanted state legislatures, Congress or the citizens themselves to directly elect the president.

Remember, the Constitution is a living document and subject to change through amendments. In the late 1700s, America was a rural, agrarian country. Today, roughly 80 percent of our citizens live in non-rural areas. Yet rural states with small populations are more overrepresented than ever. How is that fair? Amending the Constitution is quite different from declaring war on it.

It’s ironic that Thiessen accuses Democrats of warring on the Constitution, when Republicans are engaged in an anti-democracy campaign on many fronts. The disenfranchisement of poor and ethnic citizens with targeted voter purges and voter ID laws; the embrace of ruthless autocrats like Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; declaring a bogus national emergency to build an unneeded wall; separating children from their parents at the border; rampant Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol abuses; demonizing a free press – all these actions actually attack our Constitution, as well as the values our country was built on.

Andrew Mazer

Yarmouth

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