Should we get rid of the electoral college?

The electoral college is a compromise in the constitution between Congress electing the president, and citizens electing the president. In modern times some argue it was designed (and is still used) to protect slave states from becoming a minority (which lead to the 3/5 compromise). The way our system works now is that states can select electors, and those electors then vote on the president and vice president (source).

So in theoretical sense we the people do chose our leader because we chose the people who chose the president, but in a literal sense our voice is considered less than the electors, as the electoral college chooses the president rather than the popular vote.

This reminds me of what we learned at the beginning of the year, about how Hamilton and others believed the average person was incapable of leading, and most people could not be trusted to make the right choices. I think now we must consider if we still believe that.

The electoral college protects Louisiana's coal workers from being drowned out by California liberals, but it also protects big industry (like tech) from regulations because many representatives have financial interests in certain industries. While it's important that smaller, rural states don't have their laws set by California (I'm using us as an example because of our population size), I think the electoral college right now is mainly just stopping progress. A green economy, gun control, and more are important issues that won't be addressed while the electoral college is in place due to both elector interests and the stark differences between the issues states face. Gun control/environmental regulation could help the whole nation, but I doubt there will be a president willing to address those things as long as the electoral college is in place.