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Absurdity of the Electoral College:
Here's one nice thing we can now say about the Electoral College: it's slightly less harmful to our democracy than it was just days ago. In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that states have the right to "bind" their electors, requiring them to support whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote in their state. Justice Elena Kagan's opinion was a blow to so-called "faithless electors," but a win for self-government. "Here," she wrote, "the People rule."
Yet while we can all breathe a sigh of relief that rogue electors won't choose (or be coerced) into derailing the 2020 presidential contest, the Court's unanimous ruling is a helpful reminder that our two-step electoral process provides America with no tangible benefits and near-limitless possibilities for disaster. To put it more bluntly, the Electoral College is a terrible idea. And thanks to the Justices' decision, getting rid of it has never been easier.
[...] The Electoral College, in other words, serves no useful purpose, other than to intermittently and randomly override the people's will. It's the appendix of our body politic. Most of the time we don't notice it, and then every so often it flares up and nearly kills us.
[...] Justice Kagan's words – "Here, the People rule" – are stirring. But today, they are still more aspiration than declaration. By declining to make the Electoral College an even great threat to our democracy, the Court did its job. Now it's up to us. If you live in a state that hasn't joined the interstate compact, you can urge your state legislators and your governor to sign on. And no matter where you're from, you can dispel the myths about the Electoral College and who it really helps, myths that still lead some people to support it despite its total lack of redeeming qualities.
More than 215 years after the Electoral College was last reformed with the 12th Amendment, we once again have the opportunity to protect our presidential-election process and reassert the people's will. Regardless of who wins the White House in 2020, it's a chance we should take.
Would you get rid of the Electoral College? Why or why not?
Also at:
Supremes Signal a Brave New World of Popular Presidential Elections
Supreme Court Rules State 'Faithless Elector' Laws Constitutional
U.S. Supreme Court curbs 'faithless electors' in presidential voting
Supreme Court rules states can remove 'faithless electors'
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Tuesday July 14 2020, @06:31AM (3 children)
Like everyone, you are jumping in at the midpoint, not the start.
States with small populations would not have agreed to the Union unless they knew they would have some say in that Union. Without the EC, the United States might be just NY, CT, MA, RI, NJ and PA, plus a number of other regional unions, because there would be no reason for sovereign states to relinquish their sovereignty for nothing.
What you propose by eliminating the EC without going through the correct process to amend the Constitution, is to deprive states of the benefit of the bargain made with the more populous states. To unconstitutionally destroy the EC would make you and your kind treaty, you would turn low population states essentially into mere colonies (that makes you an imperialist) whose sole purpose is to produce goods for your consumption but who have no representation in government (slaves on a plantation).
I guess the question comes down to whether your moral system condones being a treaty breaking imperialist slave driving plantation owner. If yes, you are not a good person. If no, quit bitching and go through the Constitutional process required to eliminate the EC.
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Tuesday July 14 2020, @06:44AM
Change in 3d paragraph, "your kind treaty" to "your kind treaty breakers".
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday July 14 2020, @04:26PM
Actually I'm not advocating the abolishing of the EC. I don't know of a good way to change it, but I do think it needs to be there.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Tuesday July 14 2020, @09:08PM
Your post, hemocyanin, does a good job explaining what I was trying to argue in the OP. In fact, the low-population states are already treated as colonies to some extent as it is.