Most of our esteemed state senators voted last night to dismiss the collective wisdom of the Founding Fathers as just so much poppycock. They did this when they voted for S954, a bill that would circumvent the U.S. Constitution’s Article V, which governs how presidents and vice presidents are elected. Here are their names:

Charles Albertson (D); Bob Atwater (D); Marc Basnight (D); Doug Berger (D); Julia Boseman (D); Daniel Clodfelter (D); Janet Cowell (D); Walter Dalton (D); Charlie Dannelly (D); Katie Dorsett (D); Tony Foriest (D); Linda Garrou (D); Steve Goss (D); Malcolm Graham (D); Kay Hagan (D); David Hoyle (D); Clark Jenkins (D); Ed Jones (D); John Kerr (D); Eleanor Kinnaird (D); Vernon Malone (D); Floyd McKissick (D); William Purcell (D); Joe Sam Queen (D); Tony Rand (D); Larry Shaw (D); John Snow (D); R.C. Soles (D); A.B. Swindell (D); David Weinstein (D).

They want North Carolina to join a kind of collective action compact that would, in effect, eliminate the Electoral College. As envisioned by S954, all compact members would agree to cast all of their states’ electoral votes for the person who gets the most popular votes nationally, regardless of how their particular state may have voted in the presidential election. So, if North Carolina were to vote for Rudy Guiliani in 2008 but Hillary Clinton were to win the national popular vote, all of our electoral votes would go to her.

As you can see by the “D”s behind all the names above, this precipitous and ill-considered action is a Democratic response to Al Gore losing the electoral vote in 2000. The Founders saw all of this coming, which is why they made it difficult to amend the Constitution. They didn’t want the passions of the moment to ruin a good thing. The Democrats in the North Carolina Senate know that a national constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College, even if it were passable, would take years. So, instead, of going through the Article V process, in good left-wing fashion they chose subversion.

If you want to, you know, send them an email and ask them why they’re acting like spoiled children, go here and click on the names to find email addresses. For even more reasons to be against this bill, go here.

UPDATE: Jeff Taylor of the John Locke Foundation’s Charlotte blog, The Meck Deck, also thinks this bill smells and wonders what Daniel Clodfelter has against the Republic.