In my cruise around the internet to try to learn more about the Constitution Project, I stumbled upon some other interesting sites, including http://www.basicsproject.org/index.html.

This organization is a radical, very right wing organization. The page I opened from google as I searched for information re: The Constitutional Project, however, had an introductionary statement with which I can not say I entirely disagree. Clicking on additional links soon revealed the very strong radical right bias of the organization. I can not say I would as readily recognize a radical left bias since my bias is liberal, though not leftist.

A cut and paste from the Basicsproject page I opened from google:

        
The Defending the Constitution Project
Electoral College
Eligibility
The U.S. Constitution was established to protect the rights of U.S. citizens. It does not grant us rights, it protects our natural rights. This is important because those selected to hold office are sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution, thereby acknowledging that whatever their office, the U.S. Constitution's law is fundamental and no other bill or ruling can alter this fact.

The Framers created a constitutional republic. They took great pains not to create a democracy, which they feared. Checks and balances are intended to slow the process of creating legislation and moderate the extreme views of factions which otherwise impose on minority rights instead of creating law for the common welfare of society.

To help prevent those selected to office from abusing the power of their office and imposing tyrannical rule, authority was divided between the federal and state governments, and within each of these governments, between the branches. A bicameral legislature was created, further separating the representatives of the people from those representing the states.

James Madison wrote,

"In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the stronger individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradnally [sic] induced, by a like motive, to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful."

Our Constitution was designed to protect majority and minority rights by preventing any one faction from having too much power and undermining the people's sovereignty. This is achieved by holding citizen and representative to the same law.

When the Framers deliberated over the qualifications of the president, they made natural born citizenship a qualification to protect against foreign influences and "the electoral college mechanism was a compromise primarily about how to allocate the votes for president, rather than the source of legitimacy of those votes… popular election was unacceptable to the small (less populous) states and states where slavery was practiced. The electoral college mechanism met the separation of powers concerns of Madison and at the same time solved the representation problem of the small states and the south." (The Electoral College and the Framers' Distrust of Democracy)

Regrettably, there are serious encroachments on the checks and balances meant to protect our states rights, such as the 17th Amendment, which changed the election of our senators by their state legislatures to their election by the popular vote. Currently, there is a movement which would abolish the Electoral College and replace it with direct election of the president, based on popular vote. This would eliminate the current power of the 50 states to elect our president and have the effect of eliminating a national constituency.

BasicsProject.org has initiated The Defending the Constitution Project to educate people on legislative initiatives which are designed to protect the Constitution or would have the effect of encroaching on the Constitution and undermining the fundamental law. It is our hope that after reading more about the importance of the Constitutional design, activists will advocate to protect the Constitution by working to defeat or support such initiatives.

Peace out!