There are huge remedies available short of amendment.
The Electoral vote problem can be mitigated by making it representative. More seats in the house. Add DC, as a state.
Then Legislation to outlaw gerrymandering.
Adding seat to SC To solve today’s fascist 5 problem.
That gets us 75% the way
Unfortunately this all requires the political will to do so on the part of the Democrats
So, you agree that the Electoral College is legitimate, and that the winner of that vote has greater legitimacy than the winner of the popular vote?
In other words, your only real quarrel with our current set-up is that the winner of the popular vote isn’t given a really nice consolation prize?
It should be easy-peasy! Thank god that the GQP is happy to help with the heavy lifting, and that the states they control will absolutely cede their legal rights to control elections if Joe Biden just asks nicely enough!
Do you work full-time as a political advisor, or is it a part-time gig?
Because there’s a lot going on in the world, and TPM isn’t the NYT? I don’t understand the number of people here who subscribe to a news organization they don’t actually like or respect.
Maybe people could have a whip 'round to fund the salaries of a few more reporters?
Great point!
New to my list is the reporting of so-and-so “doubling down” on some ludicrous point. We’re also subject to concerned reports of tripling and even quadrupling down.
That’s not just lazy reporting, it reflects a bias toward lunacy.
Right.
I get pretty frustrated with folks who like to compare the enviro-footprint of green energy or EV cars, etc. when they overlook one of the most obvious issues…contained vs dispersed pollution/waste.
Being stuck with a pile of waste/end product isn’t ideal, but it is 1000 times better than turning it into some form of smoke or mixing it into soil/water and kissing it goodbye. Also, every kind of burning turns breathable air into a poison at huge rates. Not only do you now have burnt hydrocarbons in the air (and who knows what else), but you had to burn 1000 times more oxygen than fuel to achieve the goal. We are not in an open-ended system.
No. Humanity is what it is, and other, arguably more democratic states have been happy to do the whole keep-political-forces-we-don’t-like-out-of-our-sphere-of-influence thing. Human beings are pretty awesome, but our darker nature is hard to control.
P.S. Define “democracy,” then explain why your definition is more correct than anyone else’s.
Maybe people could have a whip 'round to fund the salaries of a few more reporters?
Didnt TPM just have a journalism fund drive a few months back? TPM is a boutique site with diverse, informed, and amusing members. It will never grow beyond that, never be Mother Jones. And without the laughs there’s nothing special about TPM.
I’m supporting the service. I’ll listen to what the TPM folks have to say on this, thanx.
Wow. Actually, TPM has been special for a long time. It’s changed a lot. Many of the folks who actually pay for the service don’t bother commenting in these forums…
The Trump cult is a suicide pact . . . that may kill us all.
There is the usual caveat with Chump. At the final triumphal moment HE fakes taking his swig of the sacred KoolAid and ducks out the back door (with the collection plate)…
Some agreement. They are unionized, cover what they cover, and many of the staff go on to higher paying/visibility jobs.
I’m not sure wat that means, but never mind.
Not surprising.
So you were ‘‘going there’’’. But Timothy old boy, I am a dues-paying member.
Those are all nice ideas. Unfortunately, I don’t see any of them getting past the US Senate any time soon.
I agree, but those are the solutions, short of those we continue along the road to fascism (or civil unrest)
These at least only requires simple majority. The other remedies require amendments and that surely is not ever happening again.
So you think that if in 2016, Donald Trump had been made president and Hillary Clinton had been Vice President, that would have made everything hunkey-dorey? Also, in this case, it would have violated the rule that the President and the Vice-President cannot be from the same state (since this was before Trump changed his official residence to MAL).
And what would we have done with Mike Pence, who was, after all, actually running for VP? Say, “Sorry, man, but thanks for playing, and here’s a complimentary plane ticket back to Indiana.”?
Besides, that would all require the repeal of the 12th Amendment.
No, but no worse, more hilarious… theoretically one more senate vote in certain situations
I guess, it’s a thought exercise, not so much something that will actually happen requiring the ironing out of such kinks.
I think if the Trump campaign wanted to fly Pence home, that’s fine. More funny is that Trump would likely have stranded him…
Most hairbrained half seriou, half joking internet comments about fixing government usually have at least one constitutional conflict…
