Posted by skadamat 1 day ago
Whether this hack is legal is a complicated question (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutionality_of_the_Natio...) that realistically can't be answered by anyone but SCOTUS. If states pull the trigger on NPVIC then I would bet good money that it ends up in SCOTUS, but who knows how they will rule.
Did the right ever consider the pendulum effect when they invented "plenary authority?" Or on Jan. 6th?
In presidential elections, the design of the electoral college works the other way around. It ensures that large swing states like Florida in the past and Texas today are over-represented. It means that getting 51% of the vote in Texas gets you all 40 votes.
The Electoral College is not a bad idea. It is just implemented poorly. It would work better if it actually represented the voting constituents instead of a controlling party. Nebraska and Maine have it correct.
There are potential paths to jettison the Senate filibuster rules. I hope they have the guts to do that.
OTOH, the 2/3rds needed to impeach is part of the constitution. Same with the 2/3rds needed to override a presidential veto.
America has a well balanced system, as demonstrated by this weeks blue wave. If the party in power fails to adequately deliver, the people throw them out. Changing the formula to give a strategic advantage to one side would be a dangerous move.
The purpose of democracy is not to balance between arbitrary parties.
Likewise, we don’t use a simple vote tally or other schemes like vote proportional to taxes paid. We use the carefully designed electoral college to make sure states are fairly represented.
The popular vote tally was intentionally disregarded. The founders wisely understood the problems a straight vote tally would bring, and avoided them.
Changing the formula would seriously put things at risk.
Instead, they left it up to the individual states to decide how to select electors, and initially most of them opted to have the state legislature choose the electors, not a popular vote of the state's citizens. It took decades for all states to converge on having a state-wide popular vote decide electors, and even today, "faithless" (rogue) electors -- who vote against the popular will -- are not punished in a number of states!
Given that the Constitution explicitly gives power to the individual states to decide how to select electors, there's nothing inherently "changing the formula" in a state deciding to select electors based on the entire country's popular vote tally, instead of just the state's vote tally.
Rather, the main argument against this is whether it violates the Compact Clause in article 1 by virtue of being a compact between states.
And supreme court is thoroughly politicized. It needs reform, because it is one of reasons for the dysfunction, for the lack of accountability and for the creation of imperial presidency.
Anyway you should acquaint yourself with this reality. Because it is seemingly nothing like what you have described.
And if Democrats try to pack the Supreme Court with additional justices, then again: civil war.
Why do you specifically call out Democrats here? The most recent court size increase was during the presidency of Grant, a Republican.
Anyway, regarding the original topic of the National Popular Vote compact, the Constitution does not specify how each state chooses its electors in the Electoral Collage. Initially, most state legislatures chose their electors without any popular vote at all!
Eventually all states switched to a popular vote system, individually, but this took several decades to occur. That initial switch seems more substantial than what is proposed in the National Popular Vote compact, so why are you confidently proclaiming that it would result in a civil war?
The constitution and founding fathers called for the exercise of the second amendment whenever the government went rogue, like trying to change the constitution, such as the electoral college, which ensures representation of minority populations, like farmers and other hands-on workers.
Who would raise an army to try and stop this? Who would be a willing foot soldier (besides you)?
Please, back up your bluster with something sane, something real, not just your personal nonsense. Otherwise? STFU.