this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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1097
Tim Walz calls for scrapping of electoral college to decide US presidential race (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
230 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Kamala Harris’s running mate urges popular vote system but campaign says issue is not part of Democrats’ agenda

Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has called for the electoral college system of electing US presidents to be abolished and replaced with a popular vote principle, as operates in most democracies.

His comments – to an audience of party fundraisers – chime with the sentiments of a majority of American voters but risk destabilising the campaign of Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, who has not adopted a position on the matter, despite having previously voiced similar views.

"I think all of us know, the electoral college needs to go," Walz told donors at a gathering at the home of the California governor, Gavin Newsom. "We need a national popular vote. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win."

🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 110 points 2 days ago (43 children)

It is the single most logical and devastating blow that the democratic party could work on to stop fascism.

Disallow corporate entities from owning residential property.

Increase minimum wage.

Break up monopolies and oligopolies to reintroduce competition. Get off this "stop price gouging greedflation" horse shit. Break up monopolies and oligopolies, lower the bar to competition.

End forced arbitration outright.

Set a maximum document length limit to stop frivolous lawsuits, "drowning in paperwork".

Set term limits for all govt positions, especially SCOTUS.

Harsher punishments to corporations. No more of these fines that are simply the cost of doing business. C suite execs should do time on behalf of law breaking 'corpirate citizens.'

Tax the fuck of our anything making over $100M in profit. I mean, the fuck out of it.

[–] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I agree with all of this and I think many people on Lemmy do as well. My concern is: Will the population that is excited to vote for candidates that are willing to push these changes through have the staying power?

These are huge changes to a system that has been manipulated to benefit a small group of well connected, very powerful, very wealthy people. It's not something that can change in one or even two presidential terms. These are changes that will take many election cycles to complete. These, and other big changes, need sustained focus.

Not saying it can't be done - it can. The republican party has proven that. Over the course of 40+ years they have reshaped America to fit their ideals. But it took 40 years. One part of how they did it was/is by keeping the pressure on their voting base even during non-election years through FOX news, rush limbaugh, alex jones, and other pieces of shit. So when it was time to vote their base was already "educated" on why they had to vote for the republican candidate. It made/makes it easy for the republican candidate to step in and just say the right words and phrases to the voting population and they were guaranteed a certain % of the vote.

So if the left wants to re-shape how America looks and how it treats it's population then they have to be willing to play the long game.

[–] Maeve@midwest.social 2 points 1 day ago

The candidates have to work hard to get and keep voters excited, no backpedaling on platforms.

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 6 points 1 day ago

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house

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[–] Heikki@lemm.ee 96 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The EC should go. It's possible for someone to become president with as little as 27% of the popular vote.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

CGP Grey calculated it @ 22%

https://youtu.be/7wC42HgLA4k

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Well technically the 'minimum' has almost no bottom. One tortured example, if you had a single voter per state for the biggest 11 states all vote for one candidate, but every other one of the 118 million eligible voters in other states voted the other way, then those 11 people will win.

[–] Heikki@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

Watched it. The video is 12 years old, and the article I shared is 8yrs old. I am tempted to do the calculations myself with current numbers, but I am excelled out for the day.

I was showing my 3yo how to run a DOE with his hotwheels track and the cars that work best current tests are on mass. The favorite mass is 29-32g/car to complete the track. The range is 10g-43g/ car. Below those masses, they fly off the track most of the time. Above those masses, they fail around 1st to 2nd loop.

Still have about 10 cars to test.Next steps measure wheel base, length, thickest section, car height, and running in reverse vs forward. Finally time trials.

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[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 136 points 2 days ago (6 children)

but campaign says issue is not part of Democrats’ agenda

Fucking hell! Every time either of them says something truly based, some DNC lackey comes and spoils it by saying that! 🤬

[–] queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone 42 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

And all interest in this statement was lost in record time. Even though it would help Democrats win every time, as swing states would stop being a thing, and the Democrat voters in Wyoming and Texas and every other sold-red state is now something to seriously count.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

Not every time. Republicans have won the popular vote before. What would happen, though, is the Republican Party would have to adjust its platform to become more in line with the majority of Americans.

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[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (10 children)

It's not like Walz or Harris can do anything about it anyway. Legal scholars have said that it would take a Constitutional amendment to change the electoral college system to anything else, as it is mandated by the Constitution.

Amending the Constitution requires ratification by 75% of the 50 US states after passing a 2/3 majority of Congress.

It's best to be realistic and not get worked up about things you can't do anything about.

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 14 points 1 day ago

Even if we keep the electoral college as a means of allocating points we need to get rid of the electors. I've been saying this since before Jan 6th 2021.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 78 points 2 days ago (9 children)

I think at this point pretty much everyone I've ever talked to thinks the electoral college is bullshit. Even my dad and he's a trumper.

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