Gleaning Facebook: The Electoral College Is a Major Flaw

The Electoral College is a major flaw in our Constitution.

It is unfair.

It is anti-republican.

It has caused nothing but trouble.

It has failed (never so clearly as 2016) in its purpose of barring the election of an unqualified demagogue. It is a remnant of the age of slavery. It is a remnant of the original view of us as a confederation of nations rather than the "one nation" we all have pledged our allegiance to since the Civil War.

One of the silliest anti-popular vote arguments (that gets repeated over and over) is that Americans would be giving the power to elect a president to just a few large states. Hogwash! Even the most polarized states have sizable minority votes. Both major party candidates get significant support in all fifty states. As it stands now candidates ignore most states and campaign ONLY in a few "battleground" states. Under a true popular vote system nominees would campaign nationwide. Even Anchorage AK and Birmingham AL and Cheyanne WY might get a campaign event! Republicans in CA and Democrats in TX would know their votes could count toward a possible national victory even if they were outnumbered in their own state.

The 2016 race is really the most striking case against the EC. Hillary Clinton had a narrow but clear victory. The people chose, narrowly but clearly by almost three million ballots, the Clinton policies over the Trump policies. President Obama leaves office as one of the most popular retiring presidents of modern times. Given the opportunity, I think the American people would choose today to continue the Obama presidency. Trump takes office with the least support of any president since polling has been conducted. He may claim one, but he has no legitimate mandate.

We must find a way eventually to abolish the EC. That will be very hard, since there is little incentive for small states to agree to an amendment to that effect.

In the meantime we must form a clear, vocal, unwavering resistance to the authoritarian Trump. We must battle to build our state and local parties. We must battle tooth and nail to block the dismantling of environmental, economic, healthcare, diplomatic, civil rights, and other gains of the last eight years.

As usual, this topic spurs lots of discussion. I enjoyed this one.

George Barton You can always move to Wyoming. It's just wishful thinking, a Constitutional amendment requires the consent of 3/4ths of the state Legislatures, and since most states would lose clout if it were passed, they are not going to go for it. And Wyoming has just as many US Senators as California, we should change that too.

Terrell Shaw Maybe, but it's fight that must be fought. Short of that, instant runoffs would likely stop candidates like Trump.
John Carlin $500 million to win 3 million more votes doesn't sound like democracy either.

Terrell Shaw $$ in politics is a real problem. The Democratic Party is the one that, at least, proposes to do something about it. I DO NOT recommend unilateral disarmament however. 

John Carlin It is the problem. Instead of attending fundraisers in Hollywood CA, the Democrats should have picked a candidate that would have at least campaigned in Wisconsin. She was good at raising money though.
Terrell Shaw Wish we had 20/20 foresight. She was also good at campaigning, though not as good as her husband or Obama... still good. And she won more votes than any candidate except Obama in history. It is useless and incorrect to blame the candidate. In a close election there are always a million things that could have made a difference, including, of course, different tactics by Clinton. It remains: w/o Putin's meddling she wins. Without Comey's stupidity, she wins. Without the faux Benghazi investigations, she wins. Without media's false equivalence of e-mail mistake with Trump scandals, she wins. Etc. ad infinitum.
John Carlin I disagree.
Terrell Shaw That's ok. :-)

Raymond Atkins Terrell Shaw Comey wasn't being stupid. He knew exactly what he was doing, and to whom.

Jeff Hodges Whoever designed this meme has no clue about how the Electoral College was designed to work. Thank God the founding fathers were more intelligent than "Occupy Democrats".
Raymond Atkins The founding fathers had little faith in the common man and were worried about “the tyranny of the majority.” Ironically, they then hedged their bets and created a de facto tyranny of the minority instead. The Constitution is an amazingly flexible document, but it has its flaws. I have always believed that the Electoral College is one of them.

John Teague White I was never a big fan of the electoral college. Until this election. Now I kind of understand it. It keeps large population states like California and New York from dictating presidential elections. It keeps regional favorites from running away with elections. And best of all it negates rabid voter fraud (massive illegal immigrants voting in the election) from stealing an election.

Terrell Shaw I could not disagree more completely, Mr White. The object of the EC was to prevent the very sort if perfect storm that occured in 2016 to allow an unqualified demagogue to be selected. The EC would step in and in their wisdom choose a statesman. That did not happen. A popular election would empower minorities in each state to aspire to combine with like minded folk in other stares to make a majority. It would make all men equal. The EC is a betrayal of the Declaration's ideal that all men are created equal. Your argumentbus exactly the one that I decsribed above (before you made it here) as 'silly'. No state is all Democrat or all GOP.

In the five cases where the popular vote winner lost tge Presidency the popular winner in each case was as much a major nationwide candidate as the person who was actually selected. There is no reason to doubt the national legitimacy of Andrew Jackson, Samuel Tilden, Grover Cleveland, Al Gore, or Hillary Clinton compared to JQ Adams, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, GW Bush, or (for heaven's sake) Donald Trump.

John Teague White All well and good, and I might even concede the point under one circumstance. An iron clad and un counterfeitable voter I'd system. One that ensures one vote for one legal voter.
Terrell Shaw There is no significant voter fraud. We do have significant voter suppression problems that need attention. And we need better verifiable methods of reliable recounts.

John Teague White There is no significant voter fraud? Are you insane or just oblivious? There are reports of voter fraud from almost every state. People caught voting two and three times or more. Illegals voting by the van load. Now I don't know if all that is 100% true but I'd rather know it's not than hope it's not.
Dawn N Luke Andrews Jonathan Ingram The facts are conveniently ignored as usual.
Raymond Atkins A solution that would address both this issue and the much larger issue that not enough people can be troubled to vote in presidential elections would be to move election day to April 15 and require folks to vote when they file their taxes.

John Teague White Never thought I'd amount to enough to actually have to pay taxes. Guess that GED and college paid off somehow. Cause damned if uncle Sam don't send me a bill for services every year now. Feel like hurting someone every time it comes time to write that check.