The easiest and most efficient way to clean up our elections and make them open and transparent is for Congress to create an “Elections USA” agency as soon as possible
Agree completely on the need for national standardization. Regarding the electoral college. It is absolutely true that we can never get rid of it and the recurrent calls to "abolish the electoral college!!" are just silliness. Can never happen. BUT: There is another way that would take away a lot of the inequity created by the EC. Enlarge the House of Representatives. There is no other country with a bicameral legislature where a member of the lower house represents so many people. And it doesn't require changing the constitution. Can be done by simple statute. Double the size of the House and you bring the EC vote a LOT closer to the popular vote. And the added side benefit of making it less expensive to run for a House seat.
While I back 100% Thom's suggestion that we create an "Elections USA" agency like Canada's,
I'm not going to hold my breath with Repugs holding 50% of the Senate. However, I see a problem that I don't see anyone addressing....and is being glossed over and even misconstrued in the press: The Constitution giving state legislatures the power to select the electors sent to our antiquated, dysfunctional Electoral College--no matter the actual popular vote in any given state. On the one hand, Repug-controlled state legislatures can legally override the will of the majority of voters in their states by choosing to send electors who will vote for the "losing" presidential candidate in their states. Entirely legit per the Constitution--our sacred document....right? Some are calling this an "attempted coup." But the actual problem with the "alternate slate of Electors" that several states (7) sent to Congress was simply that they were not "certified" as the Electors from those states. What if they had been so "certified" by their state legislators despite the majority of voters in each state voting for the other party's candidate? It would have been legal....yes? This is what we are concerned about happening in 2024. However, there is another side to this picture....and that is the movement afoot to bypass the Electoral College by enough states (for an Electoral College victory) agreeing to send Electors to vote for the presidential candidate who received the majority of votes nationwide...despite the vote tallies in those different states.....yes? So this would amount to sending Electors contrary to the will of the majority of voters in any of these states that have agreed to this national majority approach to bypassing the complications of the Electoral College. What a mess we have !! We need that neutral, non-partisan Elections Agency !!
Womp, womp. Electoral College security patch failed! :-(
An updated fix to an outdated program that’s hard-wired into the system to prevent a fix won’t ever install correctly unless you monkey around with the motherboard. Good luck with that.
Exacerbating this fatal flaw, any workarounds will also likely fail, at least until the nation’s zeitgeist no longer demonizes liberal thought. It’s the basic Republican “Rat Rule”: Great idea + DemocRAT = baby-eating, pedophilic, Satanic, wicked agenda. Why, of course. Any sensible solution proffered by anyone with even a whiff of bid-D socialism is the essence of unspeakable evil, by definition, and therefore resisted by a mass mobilization of good Christian soldiers across God’s great white kingdom.
Tyranny! Communist takeover of elections! (Go figure; bubbas in authoritarian red states never consider their own governorships and legislatures “Big Government.”) In their ultimate battle for the soul of Meerkkka — for a theocracy that worships money and power in the name of their gun-totin’ Jesus — (unvaccinated and unmasked) Trumpites are more than willing to ruin their lives, destroy their credibility, and even die for their one true Trumpian God.
Sadly, all that hypocritical faux commitment and overwrought self-righteousness, unchained, is only the blind willingness of little people with no power who submit to the big guys with all the power, the masters of the universe who smugly exercise THEIR free will by interfering in every aspect of other people’s lives — financially, culturally, and socially as well as politically and religiously. It’s just the unchangeable natural order of things in the species’ pecking order. Got a bitch? Take it up with God.
One of the hardest scenarios to visualize for sober and sane citizens who don’t succumb to mass delusion is a future United States where the good-faith representatives of all parties find workable solutions unencumbered by partisan pettiness, who value the good of the country more than the power of a party. And of course, that’s a future without a whiff of the Republican Party of today.
These are other ways to vet a political candidate: Disclosure of the candidates tax returns; Disclosure of a candidates academic records; Disclosure of their public service records; Disclosure of whether or not the candidate regularly voted; Disclosure of any criminal record, including civil crimes or settlements. An unwillingness to disclose information should be understood as an effort by the candidate to misrepresent their qualifications which is a fraud against the citizens of the the U.S. Asking the candidate what the words democracy, liberty, freedom, Constitution, and the phrases peaceful transfer of power and rule of law mean to them; and when a candidate states something that is false, they should be required to explain how they learned the falsehood and/or support their assertion with verifiable facts.
Agree completely on the need for national standardization. Regarding the electoral college. It is absolutely true that we can never get rid of it and the recurrent calls to "abolish the electoral college!!" are just silliness. Can never happen. BUT: There is another way that would take away a lot of the inequity created by the EC. Enlarge the House of Representatives. There is no other country with a bicameral legislature where a member of the lower house represents so many people. And it doesn't require changing the constitution. Can be done by simple statute. Double the size of the House and you bring the EC vote a LOT closer to the popular vote. And the added side benefit of making it less expensive to run for a House seat.
I agree with your email
While I back 100% Thom's suggestion that we create an "Elections USA" agency like Canada's,
I'm not going to hold my breath with Repugs holding 50% of the Senate. However, I see a problem that I don't see anyone addressing....and is being glossed over and even misconstrued in the press: The Constitution giving state legislatures the power to select the electors sent to our antiquated, dysfunctional Electoral College--no matter the actual popular vote in any given state. On the one hand, Repug-controlled state legislatures can legally override the will of the majority of voters in their states by choosing to send electors who will vote for the "losing" presidential candidate in their states. Entirely legit per the Constitution--our sacred document....right? Some are calling this an "attempted coup." But the actual problem with the "alternate slate of Electors" that several states (7) sent to Congress was simply that they were not "certified" as the Electors from those states. What if they had been so "certified" by their state legislators despite the majority of voters in each state voting for the other party's candidate? It would have been legal....yes? This is what we are concerned about happening in 2024. However, there is another side to this picture....and that is the movement afoot to bypass the Electoral College by enough states (for an Electoral College victory) agreeing to send Electors to vote for the presidential candidate who received the majority of votes nationwide...despite the vote tallies in those different states.....yes? So this would amount to sending Electors contrary to the will of the majority of voters in any of these states that have agreed to this national majority approach to bypassing the complications of the Electoral College. What a mess we have !! We need that neutral, non-partisan Elections Agency !!
Off topic, but a comparison of McDonalds in the US with one in Denmark:
https://twitter.com/Strandjunker/status/1494318327061123075?s=20&t=AXa1CeS2wkDP8Npo3eyyJw
Womp, womp. Electoral College security patch failed! :-(
An updated fix to an outdated program that’s hard-wired into the system to prevent a fix won’t ever install correctly unless you monkey around with the motherboard. Good luck with that.
Exacerbating this fatal flaw, any workarounds will also likely fail, at least until the nation’s zeitgeist no longer demonizes liberal thought. It’s the basic Republican “Rat Rule”: Great idea + DemocRAT = baby-eating, pedophilic, Satanic, wicked agenda. Why, of course. Any sensible solution proffered by anyone with even a whiff of bid-D socialism is the essence of unspeakable evil, by definition, and therefore resisted by a mass mobilization of good Christian soldiers across God’s great white kingdom.
Tyranny! Communist takeover of elections! (Go figure; bubbas in authoritarian red states never consider their own governorships and legislatures “Big Government.”) In their ultimate battle for the soul of Meerkkka — for a theocracy that worships money and power in the name of their gun-totin’ Jesus — (unvaccinated and unmasked) Trumpites are more than willing to ruin their lives, destroy their credibility, and even die for their one true Trumpian God.
Sadly, all that hypocritical faux commitment and overwrought self-righteousness, unchained, is only the blind willingness of little people with no power who submit to the big guys with all the power, the masters of the universe who smugly exercise THEIR free will by interfering in every aspect of other people’s lives — financially, culturally, and socially as well as politically and religiously. It’s just the unchangeable natural order of things in the species’ pecking order. Got a bitch? Take it up with God.
One of the hardest scenarios to visualize for sober and sane citizens who don’t succumb to mass delusion is a future United States where the good-faith representatives of all parties find workable solutions unencumbered by partisan pettiness, who value the good of the country more than the power of a party. And of course, that’s a future without a whiff of the Republican Party of today.
“Ain’t nothin gonna happen.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiKrWUoTq4s
America needs to learn when a candidate is unfit for office. Here are some methods:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/07/unlike-all-previous-u-s-presidents-trump-almost-never-mentions-democratic-ideals/
These are other ways to vet a political candidate: Disclosure of the candidates tax returns; Disclosure of a candidates academic records; Disclosure of their public service records; Disclosure of whether or not the candidate regularly voted; Disclosure of any criminal record, including civil crimes or settlements. An unwillingness to disclose information should be understood as an effort by the candidate to misrepresent their qualifications which is a fraud against the citizens of the the U.S. Asking the candidate what the words democracy, liberty, freedom, Constitution, and the phrases peaceful transfer of power and rule of law mean to them; and when a candidate states something that is false, they should be required to explain how they learned the falsehood and/or support their assertion with verifiable facts.
Absolutely essential today