> The electoral college forces candidates to pay attention to issues that are important around the country. <
Yes. I once had a conversation about that with a liberal friend of mine. He’s a union member.
I pointed out that on a union job site, the contract must be acceptable to all the unions. You can’t just make the carpenters happy (who might be in the majority) and ignore the wishes of the plumbers and electricians.
As an analogy, that might have been a stretch. But my friend grudgingly admitted that I had made a good point.
I like your analogy with the carpenters.
I’ve always likened using just a popular vote would be like the Hunger Games. With the two coasts deciding what the rest of the country should do for them.