I have been calling for an end to the electoral college for decades….I have even wrote a few posts about the fact……https://lobotero.com/2019/03/05/electoral-college-must-go/
In keeping with my policy of trying to give both sides of a debate…I have read something the president said about the electoral college (he is in favor after all that is what gave him the presidency)…….
President Trump has changed his mind on the importance of the Electoral College versus the popular vote, for reasons that may be connected to his winning the Electoral College and losing the popular vote in 2016. “I used to like the idea of the Popular Vote, but now realize the Electoral College is far better for the USA,” Trump tweeted Wednesday, explaining that campaigning for the popular vote is “much easier & different” to campaigning for the Electoral College. He said it was “like training for the 100 yard dash vs. a marathon.” Trump won with 304 Electoral College votes in 2016, compared to 227 for Hillary Clinton, who had nearly 3 million more total votes. He once called the Electoral College “a disaster to a democracy,” notes the Washington Post; his reversal comes as Democrats including Elizabeth Warren call for the Electoral College to be dismantled.
To win the popular vote, Trump said, candidates only need to visit “the large States – the Cities would end up running the Country. Smaller States & the entire Midwest would end up losing all power.” Clinton’s 2016 defeat, which was the fifth such loss in US history, has led to Democratic efforts both to bypass the college and to pay more attention to states like Wisconsin, which Trump won after Clinton failed to campaign there, the Hill reports. According to National Popular Vote, 17 Democratic-leaning states plan to sign a pact to award their Electoral College votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote. (Read more electoral college stories.)
Instead of getting rid of this dinosaur….they will do what they always do…try to reform it…..that is the cowards way out of this debate.
What with Trump and Brexit, my head is in a spin at the moment. I never thought I would say this, but I am really tired of politics at the moment.
Best wishes, Pete.
I am energized…..I cannot believe that a lying sack of manure can have such a following…41% chuq
I too, for decades have favored the discontinuing the electoral college… and are taking second thoughts. My greatest concern is that additional parties could end up splitting a popular vote and a president could get elected on 35% of the popular vote. Much of the problem with the current process are with the individual states themselves in not only selecting delegates but also determining to the extent those delegates’ votes are handled. It’s a hodge-podge of state variances. Popular vote would also shift the strategic party candidate paradigm to just the more populous cities/states.. thus enhancing our current rural vs urban national divide.
It’s a numbers game for sure… but maybe the rules should change on the existing system before risking tossing out the baby with the bathwater. Just speculating.
Maybe then these cowards could learn to work together to solve problems….I have no problem with coalitions….chuq
I would favor changing the present system only for one of two options.
Have a run off election if no one candidate gets over fifty per cent. My state has that system for all offices. I would not want someone with only thirty five per sent cent get any office, or get small the Delaware’s for a presidential primary. We have run offs for all the primaries.
The other option would be to have the House of Representatives elect the president. Every four years the house elections would virtually be presidential elections Tjis would work in a similiar fashion to a parliamentary system, and if it took that form I would approve.
or get all the delegates in a presidential primary.
I like the idea of forming coalitions…it would force these lazy fools to work together to get solutions to problems….chuq