And today, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by JD Vance continuing the lie that FEMA is doing a crummy job in the Helene recovery process. That lie is causing problems and confusion. I think it would have much more relevant to discuss the WSJ editorial decision to publish this travesty.
And oh, by the way, I live in western NC, and I have seen what a great job the gov’t agencies are doing. Haven’t seen ole JD down here, checkin’ things out.
Dawn, I agree that there are much more relevant things going on than the VP cnadiate’s comments on the electoral college. I hope you and yours are coping and are safe.
Thanks so much for the good wishes Lucy. I came through OK - just no power for 9 days. But I know so many people with trees on houses, crushed cars, small businesses washed away.
My new concern about Milton is 2-fold - my daughter is in the crosshairs - she evac’ed 2 days ago. But as it pertains here, with all this mistrust that Trump/Vance and their minions are sowing, how is this going to play out in Florida? Will the people there not trust going in? What these guys are doing to score a political point or two is dangerous. Thanks again for. Your warm note.
Walz is in good company on this. The Electoral College is an archaic system created at a time when slave owners could force Black men in servitude and uneducated to cast a ballot for whomever ‘owned’ them even their votes was devalued in comparison to white men. (Women were not allowed to vote at the time.) In this day and age, people are better educated and able to make judge candidates for themselves. (But sometimes I wonder about those MAGA loyalist who reveal some very twisted logic when interviewed at Trump rallies.) Choosing the president by a popular vote is more a democratic system. It’s just disappointing that there is little hope that this will happen.
As someone who leans left in a very red controlled state, I think it should go. I often feel my vote does absolutely nothing because of the electoral college.
Not true! There is a possibility that this election can come down to 270-269 in electoral college. Your 5 electoral votes are critical! It is important that we get everyone we know out to vote this year!
I'm still amazed that the country went through that whole prohibition fiasco (and 2 related constitutional amendments) but we can't get our acts together on some of the most popular reforms today (guns, SCOTUS, elections, etc.). If we can find a way to break out of the divisiveness, maybe the people could finally work together to GSD!
The Electoral College discussion appears in quite a few comment sections across a wide spectrum of newspapers, blogs, etc. Walz did not say something that hasn't been discussed at tables in homes around the country. If a poll was done here, it probably would have yes, no, and undecided. He's come to a decision and announced it. I would like to know how his was formed as I read both sides. I still sit in the middle, which is not to do anything yet. I'm also not going to hold Walz to his view in perpetuity. New info means you really can change your mind.
No, it disenfranchises most Americans. Seven states are choosing the president and governance is hindered by having a chief executive who did not win the popular vote.
Pretty sure you are looking through highly partisan eyes. Time and again the whole country has seen that Democrats respond to character issues very differently than republicans do. And this is a character issue: “if a system unfairly benefits my party, should I choose what is fair or keep that which benefits me?”
You might want to re-visit your American history as to what happened to the Democratic Party after it championed the civil rights act. (And I’m not disregarding the Republican legislators who also supported it, but the South had been a Democratic stronghold, until….
The Electoral College is the way that small states have a say in our politics.
You may not like it, but if you get rid of the Electoral College then the East and West Coasts and major metros will run the country disenfranchising everyone else. Candidates will never have to campaign in flyover country ever again.
The sentence below s misstated. It should read "whichever candidate wins the popular vote NATIONWIDE."
"Something called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which is an agreement among states that they will award their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote in their state."
Am I the only one who is starting to think Tim Walz wasn't ready for primetime?
The convention speech was great but since then- the guy who made his name defining the Republicans as "weird" as almost disappeared from the airwaves. Why are they hiding him?
And the debate performance was oof. Again, he calls JD Vance weird but then in the debate, is nothing but cordial to him for two hours. Call him out on the weirdness, remind people why they didn't like JD Vance instead of letting Vance define himself.
He's become a walking gaffe machine. The Hong Kong question was the easiest layup and it was a disaster.
And now, a month before the election, he's whining about the Electoral College? It makes him sound like a sore loser, and makes me think he thinks they are going to lose. The EC is BS, but dude that's the hand you were dealt, work on manipulating the system in your forever. You literally just have to hold three states you won back in 2020.
Josh Shapiro was right there. ::looks at Pennsylvania polling and turns white:::
Making a perfectly valid statement about the antidemocratic distortion of the Electoral College hardly constitutes "whining." I'll take Walz any day over the cringe-worthy JD Vance - who is much more likely to become replacement President than Gov. Walz.
Sam, I agree. Walz is not doing well. Shapiro would have been a better choice. I would wager there a number of people in the Harris campaign thinking the same thing. I believe the reason they didn't was, at least large part, due to the fact they didn't want a Jewish vice presidential candidate in addition to Kamala's Jewish husband.
Or maybe they didn't want Shapiro to overshadow her, which was entirely possible. I don't think Walz will lose her the election, but if she loses Pennsylvania and that's the difference, it would be hard to argue otherwise.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an interesting idea that, as Chris says, will never be implemented. BUT even if it were, it would collapse within MINUTES of invocation. The idea is that its constituent states will direct their electors to vote for the national popular vote winner REGARDLESS of how their particular states voted. Sound reasonable?? Well, consider Florida and Ohio in 2016, both of whom voted Trump while HRC won the popular vote. Assume they're in the compact, as they'd have to be for it to get to 270. Sometime around 2am on Wednesday Nov 9 2016 when the voting results came into focus nationally, large numbers of Republican voters in those 2 states (those political nerds still up at that hour) would realize that the NPVIC would throw the result from Trump (for whom their states had voted) to Clinton. Outraged, they would contact state legislators to demand the immediate repeal of this Woke monstrosity (I'm paraphrasing them). While the constitution forbids a state changing its Elector rules after the election, I think those states would try to pick electors who'd ignore the NPVIC and vote for Trump anyway. However this panned out, the fight would go to the courts and in general be a huge clusterfuck. And guaranteed - the NPVIC would be immediately repealed in those 2 states for 2020.
I doubt the National Popular Vote Compact is constitutional as it involves changing electors' votes from the way the inhabitants of the state voted. Nothing in my reading of the Chiafalo v. Washington ruling makes me think the Supreme Court would be ok with electors voting differently from the state inhabitants.
At the very least, if the The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact comes close to going into effect, it will heighten the national conversation on the issue of the Electoral College. However, a constitutional amendment will never pass, unless it is at least at some point in the interest of both parties.
Perhaps, but in this hypothetical, the Ohio and Florida state legislatures would likely be Democratic majorities in order to have passed the NPVIC in the first place. So, you could argue that the complaints of Republican voters would fall on deaf ears!
Well, in my scenario, the 2016 OH and FL legislators were (as was true) overwhelmingly Republican. Perhaps NPVIC had been passed years before as a bipartisan bill and ignored since after 2000 it never made a difference? And even if your alternative vision is true, the fury of the MAGA mobs around this issue on Wednesday 11/9/16 would surely overwhelm any state rep/senator. They'd KNOW that to defy MAGA on this - regardless of their party - would cost them their state seat in 2018.
Well, then, I guess when Harris is president and democrats have control of the senate, there needs to be a grassroots motion to get rid of the electoral college. Our population is much more mobile than it was when the electoral college was established. It is Based on an abs substantiated, believe that each state should have equal weight. It is the people that count.
And today, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by JD Vance continuing the lie that FEMA is doing a crummy job in the Helene recovery process. That lie is causing problems and confusion. I think it would have much more relevant to discuss the WSJ editorial decision to publish this travesty.
And oh, by the way, I live in western NC, and I have seen what a great job the gov’t agencies are doing. Haven’t seen ole JD down here, checkin’ things out.
Dawn, I agree that there are much more relevant things going on than the VP cnadiate’s comments on the electoral college. I hope you and yours are coping and are safe.
Thanks so much for the good wishes Lucy. I came through OK - just no power for 9 days. But I know so many people with trees on houses, crushed cars, small businesses washed away.
My new concern about Milton is 2-fold - my daughter is in the crosshairs - she evac’ed 2 days ago. But as it pertains here, with all this mistrust that Trump/Vance and their minions are sowing, how is this going to play out in Florida? Will the people there not trust going in? What these guys are doing to score a political point or two is dangerous. Thanks again for. Your warm note.
Walz is in good company on this. The Electoral College is an archaic system created at a time when slave owners could force Black men in servitude and uneducated to cast a ballot for whomever ‘owned’ them even their votes was devalued in comparison to white men. (Women were not allowed to vote at the time.) In this day and age, people are better educated and able to make judge candidates for themselves. (But sometimes I wonder about those MAGA loyalist who reveal some very twisted logic when interviewed at Trump rallies.) Choosing the president by a popular vote is more a democratic system. It’s just disappointing that there is little hope that this will happen.
As someone who leans left in a very red controlled state, I think it should go. I often feel my vote does absolutely nothing because of the electoral college.
As an Iowan, I feel your pain. The Republicans will never want to do away with a system that is "rigged" in their favor. Talk about election fraud.
I live in a blue state that has 5 electoral votes. Our votes are unimportant to either side, really.
Not true! There is a possibility that this election can come down to 270-269 in electoral college. Your 5 electoral votes are critical! It is important that we get everyone we know out to vote this year!
I'm still amazed that the country went through that whole prohibition fiasco (and 2 related constitutional amendments) but we can't get our acts together on some of the most popular reforms today (guns, SCOTUS, elections, etc.). If we can find a way to break out of the divisiveness, maybe the people could finally work together to GSD!
The Electoral College discussion appears in quite a few comment sections across a wide spectrum of newspapers, blogs, etc. Walz did not say something that hasn't been discussed at tables in homes around the country. If a poll was done here, it probably would have yes, no, and undecided. He's come to a decision and announced it. I would like to know how his was formed as I read both sides. I still sit in the middle, which is not to do anything yet. I'm also not going to hold Walz to his view in perpetuity. New info means you really can change your mind.
Tim Walz wants to get rid of the Electoral College because it hurts Democrats. End of story.
No, it disenfranchises most Americans. Seven states are choosing the president and governance is hindered by having a chief executive who did not win the popular vote.
And if it was a Republican disadvantage, Tim Walz would be fine with that.
Pretty sure you are looking through highly partisan eyes. Time and again the whole country has seen that Democrats respond to character issues very differently than republicans do. And this is a character issue: “if a system unfairly benefits my party, should I choose what is fair or keep that which benefits me?”
You might want to re-visit your American history as to what happened to the Democratic Party after it championed the civil rights act. (And I’m not disregarding the Republican legislators who also supported it, but the South had been a Democratic stronghold, until….
Maybe Walz wouldn’t, but I sure as hell would be !
The Electoral College is the way that small states have a say in our politics.
You may not like it, but if you get rid of the Electoral College then the East and West Coasts and major metros will run the country disenfranchising everyone else. Candidates will never have to campaign in flyover country ever again.
Want to create a Civil War, do it!
They don't come to Iowa now so it wouldn't be any different. But at least my vote would count.
They show up for the caucuses. 😉🤣😂
IMHO, the political divide is so vast that I don't think the Constitution will ever be amended again. At least not in my lifetime
The sentence below s misstated. It should read "whichever candidate wins the popular vote NATIONWIDE."
"Something called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which is an agreement among states that they will award their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote in their state."
Many Americans share the governor’s opinion
James Michener published a thoughtful book, Presidential Lottery, on this subject in 1969. It is worth reading.
Am I the only one who is starting to think Tim Walz wasn't ready for primetime?
The convention speech was great but since then- the guy who made his name defining the Republicans as "weird" as almost disappeared from the airwaves. Why are they hiding him?
And the debate performance was oof. Again, he calls JD Vance weird but then in the debate, is nothing but cordial to him for two hours. Call him out on the weirdness, remind people why they didn't like JD Vance instead of letting Vance define himself.
He's become a walking gaffe machine. The Hong Kong question was the easiest layup and it was a disaster.
And now, a month before the election, he's whining about the Electoral College? It makes him sound like a sore loser, and makes me think he thinks they are going to lose. The EC is BS, but dude that's the hand you were dealt, work on manipulating the system in your forever. You literally just have to hold three states you won back in 2020.
Josh Shapiro was right there. ::looks at Pennsylvania polling and turns white:::
Making a perfectly valid statement about the antidemocratic distortion of the Electoral College hardly constitutes "whining." I'll take Walz any day over the cringe-worthy JD Vance - who is much more likely to become replacement President than Gov. Walz.
If you're complaining about how votes are counted in your election, you're not winning.
They have to win three states they've won in 7 of the last 8 elections and he's veep.
Sam, I agree. Walz is not doing well. Shapiro would have been a better choice. I would wager there a number of people in the Harris campaign thinking the same thing. I believe the reason they didn't was, at least large part, due to the fact they didn't want a Jewish vice presidential candidate in addition to Kamala's Jewish husband.
Yes, they were scared of the Gaza effect on their soft left flank.
So now they're saddled with a Midwesterner outperformed by JD Vance all of a sudden.
Or maybe they didn't want Shapiro to overshadow her, which was entirely possible. I don't think Walz will lose her the election, but if she loses Pennsylvania and that's the difference, it would be hard to argue otherwise.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an interesting idea that, as Chris says, will never be implemented. BUT even if it were, it would collapse within MINUTES of invocation. The idea is that its constituent states will direct their electors to vote for the national popular vote winner REGARDLESS of how their particular states voted. Sound reasonable?? Well, consider Florida and Ohio in 2016, both of whom voted Trump while HRC won the popular vote. Assume they're in the compact, as they'd have to be for it to get to 270. Sometime around 2am on Wednesday Nov 9 2016 when the voting results came into focus nationally, large numbers of Republican voters in those 2 states (those political nerds still up at that hour) would realize that the NPVIC would throw the result from Trump (for whom their states had voted) to Clinton. Outraged, they would contact state legislators to demand the immediate repeal of this Woke monstrosity (I'm paraphrasing them). While the constitution forbids a state changing its Elector rules after the election, I think those states would try to pick electors who'd ignore the NPVIC and vote for Trump anyway. However this panned out, the fight would go to the courts and in general be a huge clusterfuck. And guaranteed - the NPVIC would be immediately repealed in those 2 states for 2020.
I doubt the National Popular Vote Compact is constitutional as it involves changing electors' votes from the way the inhabitants of the state voted. Nothing in my reading of the Chiafalo v. Washington ruling makes me think the Supreme Court would be ok with electors voting differently from the state inhabitants.
At the very least, if the The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact comes close to going into effect, it will heighten the national conversation on the issue of the Electoral College. However, a constitutional amendment will never pass, unless it is at least at some point in the interest of both parties.
Perhaps, but in this hypothetical, the Ohio and Florida state legislatures would likely be Democratic majorities in order to have passed the NPVIC in the first place. So, you could argue that the complaints of Republican voters would fall on deaf ears!
Well, in my scenario, the 2016 OH and FL legislators were (as was true) overwhelmingly Republican. Perhaps NPVIC had been passed years before as a bipartisan bill and ignored since after 2000 it never made a difference? And even if your alternative vision is true, the fury of the MAGA mobs around this issue on Wednesday 11/9/16 would surely overwhelm any state rep/senator. They'd KNOW that to defy MAGA on this - regardless of their party - would cost them their state seat in 2018.
Trump is a
Fucking NAZI
ENOUGH
SAID
If we take out the word Electoral, they I’m more apt to agree with him.
Well, then, I guess when Harris is president and democrats have control of the senate, there needs to be a grassroots motion to get rid of the electoral college. Our population is much more mobile than it was when the electoral college was established. It is Based on an abs substantiated, believe that each state should have equal weight. It is the people that count.