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The electoral college is a failure. The Founding Fathers would probably agree (Mega Barf Alert)
Washington Compost ^ | April 8, 2019 | Joshua Spivak

Posted on 04/08/2019 3:09:25 PM PDT by EdnaMode

As the presidential campaign heats up, so too has the movement to abolish or otherwise neutralize the electoral college.

Some advocates argue that the electoral college was originally established to help less-populated states retain power, or to have every part of the country heard from in electing a chief executive. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) claims the system was designed to help the slave states.

But these are modern interpretations of what really happened at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The electoral college was designed with two purposes: to separate the branches of government in an attempt to avoid “cabals” and to prevent foreign corruption. Some of the Founding Fathers assumed it would almost never actually elect a president. In other words, we could say the electoral college failed to achieve most of what the founders designed it to do.

The electoral college was not a replacement for direct election — because that possibility never received serious consideration at the convention. (Only two of 11 states voted for a popular election of the president.) As James Madison’s notes make clear, there was very little support for a popular election of the president. The original idea in his influential Virginia Plan was that the new bicameral legislature — Congress — would itself gather to elect the executive, and the convention repeatedly returned to that idea.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2020election; districtofcolumbia; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; election2020; electoralcollege; faithlesselectors; fakenews; foundingfathers; howardschultz; jeffbezos; joshuaspivak; mediawingofthednc; nationalpopularvote; npv; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; smearmachine; spivak; starbucks; wasghintoncompost; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: OrangeHoof

Which would give the Democrat just 15-16% of the total votes

Out of 3116 counties, Hillary won just 478 of them (if I recall my numbers correctly)


61 posted on 04/08/2019 4:43:50 PM PDT by digger48
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To: SunkenCiv
If NPV passes in time, in winning the popular vote, President Trump will win the electoral votes of NY and CA. Then watch the same DUmmies and media shills bitch that the electors should be faithless and cast their votes for the Demagogic Party nominee.

Exactly correct.

I believe there is an excellent chance of President Trump winning the popular vote in 2020.

62 posted on 04/08/2019 4:46:15 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: EdnaMode

The Genius Electoral College is working PRECISELY as it is supposed to work.

Those with no IQ cannot understand what that means, but it is the truth.

No MOB rule for the USA.


63 posted on 04/08/2019 4:46:33 PM PDT by Maris Crane
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To: dhs12345

At the time of the founding, Virginia was the California of its time, nearly twice as populous as the next closest state. Yet many of the founders hailed from Virginia, and still managed to contrive the Electoral College.


64 posted on 04/08/2019 5:00:16 PM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves.)
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To: EdnaMode

Another light-weight wanting to sit at the big table.


65 posted on 04/08/2019 5:02:36 PM PDT by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
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To: EdnaMode

Stalinists speak with forked tongue.


66 posted on 04/08/2019 5:10:01 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: EdnaMode

The Founding Fathers would view Universal Suffrage as a failure.


67 posted on 04/08/2019 5:10:38 PM PDT by Mr. Blond
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To: EdnaMode

The electoral college was designed with two purposes: to separate the branches of government in an attempt to avoid “cabals” and to prevent foreign corruption.>> false premise straw man.


68 posted on 04/08/2019 5:37:05 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2 (spooks won on day 76)
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To: EdnaMode

This is utterly nonsensical and completely devoid of reality, yet it was written and published in a major newspaper as authoritative. The Founders didn’t intend for it to actually elect a President? The very first President was elected by it and then re-elected. It was quickly amended not long after to prevent constant elections by the House - well within the lifetimes of these same Founders - quite an oddity if it was never meant to elect a President.


69 posted on 04/08/2019 5:44:13 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: kvanbrunt2

Right - it was designed to because the President of the United STATES was being elected by those STATES that were separate entities that joined together to form the national in a Union. It’s in the very name, yet they still don’t get it. This guy has no clue, yet I’m sure has plenty of extra letters sitting beside his name so he can make the claim he’s a so-called “expert.”


70 posted on 04/08/2019 5:47:54 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: marktwain; SunkenCiv

It is precisely what they were saying prior to the election when the polls at certain points in the race showed Trump with clear leads. The talking heads discussed it with the experts saying “Well, he’s doing well in the national popular vote, but his real problem is in the Electoral College, which he is not likely to win even if he wins the popular vote.” Heard this over and over again...and of course the possibility of such an outcome didn’t bother them in the least...it was how the system was set up to work. When the opposite occurred, they flipped like they had never made the previous comments and the EC had to go.

In fact, if you recall, they did the same thing back in 2000 - raising the possibility that Gore could win Florida while Bush wins the national popular vote as some polls were showing Bush with a clear national lead but with it too close to call in Florida. The Founders were brilliant. Then the opposite occurs and it becomes a travesty.

To simplify it, they’re just lying.


71 posted on 04/08/2019 5:52:26 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: HonorInPa

I agree with one exception. It was Lincoln who began the downfall of state’s rights. Before the War of Northern Aggression, folks said “The United States are” after the War, it became “The United States is”. Roosevelt surely put his stamp on it, but it began 70 years earlier.


72 posted on 04/08/2019 5:56:16 PM PDT by TallahasseeConservative (Isaiah 40:31)
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To: EdnaMode

Who is this twerp???


73 posted on 04/08/2019 6:04:50 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Valk Rider

You are wrong


74 posted on 04/08/2019 6:05:27 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: EdnaMode
Anyone who writes a headline like this is just advertising their ignorance.

-PJ

75 posted on 04/08/2019 6:09:25 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: EdnaMode

It has been a resounding success.


76 posted on 04/08/2019 6:30:32 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: Republican Wildcat
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

77 posted on 04/08/2019 6:36:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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78 posted on 04/08/2019 6:39:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: EdnaMode
The Founders would double down on the Electoral College concept if they saw America today.


79 posted on 04/08/2019 6:57:24 PM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler (Give me Norfolk Virginia TideWater4-1009 The poor Boy Is On The Line)
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To: EdnaMode
I won’t pay a dollar to read this dreck, but I assume it eventually gets around to the truth, ie that the electoral college was a vehicle for the states to choose the president. It was a fundamental element of federalism to give the states some control over the executive, just as the original choosing of the Senate gave the states some control over the legislative branch.

It was not expected that the people at large would ever have much to do with the distant and mild mannered central government they anticipated, so there was no real need for the people to have to take a hand in its running.

80 posted on 04/08/2019 7:31:32 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (Power is more often surrendered than seized.)
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