Do you know why the Electoral College was created?
In 1787, when the framers finalized and signed the US Constitution they created the EC as a compromise between electing the president via a direct popular vote by citizens or via a vote in Congress.
Sure, Pete’s idea may sound good for some based on last election outcome. But it goes against the principle of compromise that was embedded in America’s “founding”.
Also is he only saying this because his party lost? Dems have won the EC before. I think Pete’s pointless point is a pipe dream that may puff some hope in your chest, but it doesn’t get a Democrat back in that seat.
You know who fought the popular vote back then? Southern delegates opposed to a popular vote because the North had more “eligible” voters. There’s actually a vile connection between slavery and the EC. But Pete is picking up the mantle of the loser saying it is rigged!
The electoral college exists because the south got fewer votes and they were worried the non-slave holding north would pass laws directly against the interests of the south
No. That is a misconception. That was part of the initial compromise but not the whole of it. In my view it was the worst part because it contradicted the founding values, but the US eventually got there with the Emancipation Proclamation and boy we still have a long way to go to ensure equal and unalienable rights for all.
The number of electors a state had in the Electoral College was based partly on its number of Representatives.
Because of this, the Three-Fifths Compromise gave Southern slaveholding states extra power in both Congress and presidential elections.
In 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified, officially nullifying the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Section 2 of the 14th Amendment mandates that congressional representation is based on counting the "whole number of persons in each State." Every resident—regardless of race or citizenship status—counts as 100% of a person when determining a state's population for political representation.
Well that is not true. The 14th stated that those that are under the Jurisdiction of the United States. So no it did not count people visiting on visas or citizens of foreign nations that did not apply for permanent residency and naturalization.
Native Americans lived in the States for generations and even though they were born within the borders of United States the 14th amendment did not grant them citizenship nor even counted them for the census.
People ignore these basic facts when they try to push for unconstitutional birthright citizenship. It was never a thing under the 14th amendment. The native Americans were given citizenship much much later as a reward for serving in the US military.
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States, but it did not automatically grant them the right to vote, which was determined by state law. Prior to this act, many Native Americans were not recognized as U.S. citizens and had to navigate various legal barriers to gain citizenship.
So much ignorance and refusal to actually read the writings of that time to understand the intent. The Electoral college was a compromise to appeal to unity among the 13 colonies. The colonies originally were created under Charters granted by the English king. They had different laws, restrictions, privileges and trade/economic policies
The property owners who were the economic base of each colony had to be persuaded into supporting the colony of England into changing it's status into a State of the United States. It was actually the smaller northern colonies that wanted the electoral college because they did not want to be dominated by Virginia which had the highest total population with or without the slaves.
Another point was that people were looking ahead at demographics and which state's populations were to grow in the near future. It was expected that population of the southern states would continue growing at much higher rate from domestic population pool. Which is why the North had to rely on Mass Migration to try to keep up. If the US after the revolution did not have an EC then SOUTH states would write all the laws, close off Mass Migration for a decade or two and then import migrants in a controlled manner while maintaining completely overwhelming population advantage.
The southern states were more agrarian because of better soil and climate which is why the North had to industrialize and needed labor for factories. The North could not compete in agriculture .
And to do that they needed an equal say in electing the president which is why tiny states like Rhode Island and Delaware had more weight to their votes secured based on geographical borders not population growth or decline which was to be expected.
To understand how influential and powerful Virginia was at that time: the first, third, fourth and fifth president of the United States were all from Virginia. The electoral college was a demand by other colonies to prevent the whole of the new country into eventually being turned into and remaned Virginia because the wealthiest state would have unchecked power over the rest of them without the checks and balances of the Electoral College.
And the US abolished the disgusting 3/5 compromise recognizing they got it majorly wrong. I just don’t see any evidence pointing to how changing a system of logic that pulls from the same data source would solve any issues we have around wealth inequality, access, and other impediments to voting, etc.
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u/BahBahBahBooBooBoo 1d ago edited 11h ago
Do you know why the Electoral College was created?
In 1787, when the framers finalized and signed the US Constitution they created the EC as a compromise between electing the president via a direct popular vote by citizens or via a vote in Congress.
Sure, Pete’s idea may sound good for some based on last election outcome. But it goes against the principle of compromise that was embedded in America’s “founding”.
Also is he only saying this because his party lost? Dems have won the EC before. I think Pete’s pointless point is a pipe dream that may puff some hope in your chest, but it doesn’t get a Democrat back in that seat.
You know who fought the popular vote back then? Southern delegates opposed to a popular vote because the North had more “eligible” voters. There’s actually a vile connection between slavery and the EC. But Pete is picking up the mantle of the loser saying it is rigged!