Will the Electoral College Give Trump the Presidency Again
How Trump Could Win Once more, Even if He Loses
Ii words: Electoral College.
Tala Schlossberg and
Video
transcript
transcript
Abolish the Electoral College and Everyone Wins
Whether you're Republican or Democrat, the Electoral Higher is unfair.
-
Democracy is, at its core, about fair, equal representation — ane person, ane vote. But if you're a voter in the U.s.a., in that location's a really skillful take chances your vote doesn't count the mode you recollect it does. Why? Well, American democracy operates on a whole collection of cherished ideas and practices, but our system also includes some dusty one-time artifacts from its founding two centuries ago. Take the Electoral College, America's organization for picking the president. It's complicated, outdated, unrepresentative — in a word, undemocratic. In 2016, Donald Trump won the White House by earning a bulk of electoral votes, even though almost iii meg more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. It wasn't the commencement time a president won past losing or the second or even the fourth. And this year, who knows? I've spent the past few years obsessively analyzing the Electoral College, trying to understand the concerns of the founding fathers, doing the math from unlike elections. I wrote a whole book on the subject. What I learned is it doesn't have to be this way. And the reasons people think we need to go along the Electoral College the style it is, they're all wrong. Myth No. 1, that Democrats volition win a pop vote every time. A lot of people don't even want to talk near changing the Balloter College because of this idea. Republicans especially worry about tipping the balance away from their party. And sure, the concluding two times the Electoral College has awarded the White House to the popular-vote loser, information technology's been to the Republican — Donald Trump in 2016 and George Due west. Bush-league in 2000. But don't forget, Bush won the pop vote four years after by 3 million votes. In fact, permit'south tally upwardly all the votes bandage for president betwixt 1932 and 2008. That'southward well-nigh one.5 billion votes. Sometimes one political party does better for a few ballot cycles. Merely in the finish, Republicans and Democrats are nearly tied. The indicate is, even accounting for demographic changes, neither party has a built-in advantage under a pop-vote system. Myth No. 2: The founders wanted it this way. And because they created it, it'due south a sacred work of constitutional genius. That's not true either. The founders fought like cats and dogs over how the president should exist chosen. They disagreed and so strongly that the final organization wasn't adopted until the concluding minute, thrown together by a few delegates in a side room. Many of them were unhappy with the results. Some of the almost of import framers, including James Madison and James Wilson, wanted to write a straight popular vote into the Constitution. Why did they lose? For one thing, slavery. Enslaved people couldn't vote, just they were still counted toward the slave states' representation in Congress. That meant more power for those states under an Electoral College system, and slave states didn't want to surrender that power. This is just one way the legacy of slavery nonetheless taints our politics today. Just go this, the mode the Electoral Higher actually functions today isn't fifty-fifty enshrined in the Constitution. The way information technology gets implemented is the result of dozens of state laws, which evolved over fourth dimension as the country settled into a ii-party system. In other words, the Electoral College isn't sacred, and there'south no reason nosotros tin can't alter how it works today. And finally, Myth 3: The Electoral Higher protects minor states. You may have heard this i in high school. Without the Electoral College, large states like California and New York would boss elections. The voices of pocket-sized states, similar Rhode Island and Wyoming, would be drowned out. Simply the reality is, right at present neither the small states nor the large ones have the voice they should. Which states do matter? Places like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan. These aren't modest states. They're swing states. Candidates focus on swing states because they actually have a chance of flipping them and winning a bucket of electoral votes. It's no wonder the candidates fixate on problems that matter to specific groups of voters in swing states, like fracking in Pennsylvania — "This is my 13th visit." — or prescription drug benefits in Florida. "Including prescription drug benefits and all seniors at every income level." Merely they spend near no fourth dimension talking about bug that affair to millions of voters elsewhere, like public transportation in New York or climatic change in California. Donald Trump was open near ignoring the pleas of the safe blue states similar New York when they were suffering the nigh from the coronavirus pandemic. Only swing states distort our national priorities, fifty-fifty when the president wins the popular vote. Why did President Obama spend so much coin bailing out the machine industry? "America's motorcar manufacture — auto manufacture — automobile manufacture" At to the lowest degree in function considering it'due south located generally in swing states, like Michigan and Ohio, states whose balloter votes he needed to win. The reason we fifty-fifty have swing states is because almost all states award their electoral votes using a winner-take-all organisation. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a land, fifty-fifty by a single vote, they get all of that state'southward balloter votes. This means that every ballot, fourscore percent of American voters, roughly 100 1000000 people, go ignored. Retrieve about information technology. If you live in a state where you're in the political minority, your vote is finer erased. In that location are millions of Republicans in deep-blue states, like Massachusetts and California. But under this system, those Republican votes might besides not exist. This is the heart of the problem with the Electoral Higher. Just here'due south the important part. It can be stock-still. Remember what we said back in Myth No. 2? The way the Electoral Higher actually functions today isn't fifty-fifty enshrined in the Constitution. The winner-take-all method is nowhere in the Constitution. States accept the ability to laurels their electors however they similar. In fact, there is already a movement brewing amongst states to hold to award their electors to whichever candidate wins the national pop vote. When enough states join in this interstate compact, it'll mean that the popular-vote winner will ever become president. And then far, 15 states plus the District of Columbia have joined in for a total of 196 electoral votes, just 74 more than. And that's it. Suddenly, every voter will count, no thing where they live. This isn't rocket science. The winner of an ballot should be the person who gets the most votes. It'due south how nosotros run every election in the country, except the almost important one of all. It'south just bones fairness. So let'due south put the power to select the president where it actually belongs, in the hands of all the people.
American democracy isn't just quirky — it's as well unfair. Five times in our history, presidential candidates who have won more than votes than their opponent have yet lost the ballot. Why? Our 230-year-onetime jerry-congenital organization for picking the president, known equally the Balloter Higher.
Donald Trump'due south Electoral College victory in 2016 is the most recent example — and the second one in only 20 years — just popular-vote-losing presidents become back as far as John Quincy Adams in 1824.
How is this democratic? How is this even fair?
Information technology's not. Despite what you may have learned in school, it was non the product of careful pattern by brilliant men. Thrown together at the concluding minute by the country'southward founders, information technology almost immediately stopped performance equally they thought it would. And yet we have generally accepted information technology for centuries on the assumption it serves an of import purpose.
Information technology doesn't. In the video to a higher place, we delve into the reasons people give for keeping the Balloter College and why they're wrong.
This isn't a partisan issue — it's a fairness issue. Whether you're Republican or Democrat, your vote probably doesn't count the style it should. It doesn't accept to be this manner.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/opinion/trump-electoral-college-abolish.html
0 Response to "Will the Electoral College Give Trump the Presidency Again"
Post a Comment