r/politics • u/ben_watson_jr • May 19 '24

How Can This Country Possibly Be Electing Trump Again? Soft Paywall

https://newrepublic.com/article/181287/can-america-possibly-elect-trump-again
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u/assimilat Tennessee May 19 '24

Amen. The sad honest truth (and im not trying to instigate anything, and I dont condone violence, im just stating a fact) it would unfortunately take a lot of deaths to see any of that change any time soon, but finding a way to end to the electoral college would be the most important step in gaining any sort of meaningful positive reform. (Obviously)

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u/branedead May 19 '24

I believe there is a process underway where starts will automatically cede all of their electrical college votes to the winner of the popular vote, and they're closing in on 270 EC votes, which will de facto eliminate the EC

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

Thats not going to happen. This would take a constitutional convention and the Dems don’t have the numbers. The Republicans have control of most of the state legislatures. This country was founded as a constitutional republic and a move like this would lead to civil war. NY and California are so out of step with the rest of the country they shouldn’t get to disenfranchise everyone else, permanently.

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u/branedead May 20 '24

It absolutely would NOT require a constitutional convention. If 270 EC votes were coming from states that said "whoever wins the popular vote gets 100% of this state's EC votes" and boom, the EC is effectively abolished.

Why in the world would this require a constitutional convention when states get to determine the criteria by which they award EC votes?!

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

This will never happen dude. You might see some deep blue states do this but why would a smaller state relinquish their powers? Ridiculous lol

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u/branedead May 20 '24

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is currently at 209 EC votes with a number of states polling as interested in joining the compact. Time will tell whether enough join to reach 270, but even at 209 this is a significant number of votes just from the popular vote.

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

Its all deep blue states that have no chance of going republican. What a shocker! Maine could go Republican, hypothetically.

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

So if a Republican Wins Maine and EC but loses pop vote then Maine disenfranchises own voters, nice lol

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

Probably would lose a SCOTUS challenge

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u/branedead May 20 '24

You're just a negative nancy, aren't you?

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

Realistic.

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

People forget that when states joined the Union that there were protections inherent in the contract. A smaller state would not be beholden to the bigger states. This is why all states have two senators. This is why you have the EC to protect the little guy from the big guy. The minority gets to have a say.

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u/SBraund May 20 '24

The Electoral College was founded to protect the power of slave-owning states

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u/branedead May 20 '24

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the electoral college was not introduced until 10 years after the founding of the country

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u/Ok_Zebra6169 Tennessee May 20 '24

It was a compromise between congress picking the president and the popular vote. Personally, I’d rather congress pick the president. I believe more would get done and you would have a referendum on the president every two years.

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u/branedead May 20 '24

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I personally wish there was less power concentrated in the hands of the few