Considering that Trump won three normally Democratic rustbelt states Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by razor-thin margins totaling just 80,000 votes, perhaps landslide might not have been the most accurate description of the outcome of that election. There are two reasons they want to abolish the Electoral College: One, of course, is Trump. I respect Will as an astute observer of politics. Aside from all the problems that have arisen in determining who has actually won two of our last five presidential elections, we need to return to a basic electoral principle: One person, one vote. method is known as the Electoral College. However, nowadays registered voters can get their news instantly, thus are informed about the candidates. That is why it was written in the Constitution. The framers struggled for months considering the alternatives: direct election; legislative choice; gubernatorial election; even lottery. We saw this happen in the 2016 election with Donald J. Trump losing the Popular vote but won the Electoral vote and thus the 2016 election. Although he has virtually no chance of succeeding, he could not care less that he was subverting our democratic form of government. Please sign this petition to pressure the government to change the process of our presidential election to a popular vote. We do NOT offer any paid services - please don't ask! Gates Capital Management Reduces Risk After Rare Down Year [Exclusive]. It's composed of senators, each representing a single state. A party system was instituted really to fulfill that old function of the Electoral College's, which is to narrow people down and get responsible people to be candidates for the presidency. The idea was to divvy up the electoral votes of the nation's . The Electoral College was and continues to be an undemocratic system that stands as an obstacle for the United States to become a real democracy. Instead we . A simple, popular election would produce a majoritarian winner, but the College allows the people of every state a direct say in the Executive branch. 152 was a new, unique proposal of reform introduced in the 84th Congress. [5] And there is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an effort to get the states to agree to assign majority electoral votes to the winner of national popular election. EssaySauce.com is a completely free resource for students. At that time, 80% of Americans supported abolishing the Electoral College, and an amendment to do so passed the House 339-70, only to be killed in the Senate through a filibuster coordinated by. TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay. But Trumps ushering in of an ultraconservative minority-rule presidency, and the threat that he would do it again in 2024, has established Electoral College reform as a serious progressive issueespecially following the Capitol Hill insurrection., The Electoral College Saved the Election [By Christopher DeMuth; January 8, 2021][10]. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. including in the 2000 and 2016 elections. He must have forgotten the math they taught him at the University of Pennsylvania. Will himself left the party for this actual reason in 2016. Clinton, who clearly despised Trump, graciously conceded the election on Election Night. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. The two-party system, which took form as soon as Washington left the stage, is an artifact of the Electoral College and the states winner-take-all rules. When every ballot is counted in the same way, then the winner becomes easier to declare. Both sides agreed to let the U.S. Supreme Court settle the outcome once and for all. Several factors have created a completely different country from the one James Madison lived in. The result is that a small number of voters in certain battleground states become kingmakers. Get Our Activist Investing Case Study! It's time to ditch the antiquated way we choose presidents. Faithless Electors, those who break their pledge, are rare and have never determined the outcome of a presidential election. A national popular election in 2020 would have made our problems immeasurably worse. Will closed his piece by saying what I called a catastrophe can generate moderate mandates for parties that seek a broad consensus., I will concede that the Electoral College might ensure the stability of the two party system. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a121f466c6bfdb9 The result as weve now seen twice in the last two decades is that a popular vote loser can be an Electoral College winner., A Definitive Case Against the Electoral College [Interview of Jesse Wegman by Sean Illing; October 16, 2020][8]. a. Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so indeed, has always done so with strikingly awful consequences. Abraham Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote in 1860but 59% of the Electoral College. 2011-2023 VALUEWALK LLC. All of our essays are donated in exchange for a free plagiarism scan on one of our partner sites. Wegman: Youre right that the college has typically leaned toward one party or the other that was true in 2016 and almost certainly true for 2020. Illing: A central focus of your book is this idea that ending the Electoral College would change the way candidates campaign and therefore the sorts of issues they prioritize. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The alternative systems are the district plan and the proportional plan. Get the entire 10-part series on our in-depth study on activist investing in PDF. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Safe States In 48 states, a presidential candidate can win 50.01% of the popular vote in a state, yet receive 100% of the electoral votes from that state. In fact, if given the choice of either accepting his loss or preserving our democracy, which outcome would Trump choose? jo.src = 'https://www.financialjuice.com/widgets/voice-player.js?mode=inline&display=1&container=FJ-voice-news-player&info=valuewalk&r=' + r; Younger voters also tended to support abolishing the Electoral College. The Electoral College Is Racist [By Laura Thompson; March-April Issue 2021][9]. (Neale 2 CRS) Basically, Neale is saying the Electoral College provides additional leverage to states that have a smaller population. According to Civis Analytics poll, 62 percent of the people that voted in the 2016 election would like to abolish the Electoral College. The Electoral College was established by the framers of the Constitution as a last-minute deal, a gift to Southern states trying to protect slaveholders power and leverage the three-fifths compromise. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. But Madison used an already accepted formula of state representation. Gates Capital Management's ECF Value Funds have a fantastic track record. Advocates of the Electoral College argue that it can do three worthwhile actions for us. Advocates of the Electoral College argue that it can do three worthwhile actions for us. In September 28, 2004, Thomas H. Neale wrote an article called The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections for the Congressional Research Service. Both McConnell and Sample believe that the Electoral College is significant because it makes sure that the states count in presidential elections. Despite the new law, some still think the Electoral College is outdated and should be abolished in favor of a national popular vote system. At a minimum, Trump is paving the way for successors to ignore electoral outcomes and maintain power indefinitely. The funds added 7.7% overall in the second half of 2022, outperforming the 3.4% return for Read More. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Performance & security by Cloudflare. Clearly, whoever won Floridas 25 electoral votes would win the election. The framers biggest fear was the fear of power, and they did their upmost to limit and control the control and limit the power of . Mission: Providing a framework to improve your investing PROCESS, while collecting newsworthy information about trends in business, politics and tech areas. This makes the candidates focus on swing states needs more than other states in order to win the election. It was also a savvy compromise. The Electoral College has 538 electors; each state has a set number of electors equivalent to its two US senators plus its number of US congressional house representatives. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. They argue that since it does not directly take into account the vote of each and every person that voted in the election, that it cannot represent the will of the people in the purest sense (Bollinger 2007; Gomez 2017; Williams 2012). (04.06 MC) The President of the United States cannot stand above the battle engaging in vague little sermons on brotherhood. Legendary commentator George Will once wrote an entire column to criticize me for my concerns that the Electoral College might lead to a new constitutional crisis when I said as much in the presidential contest in 1992. By one analysis of the 2012 presidential election, four out of five voters had virtually zero influence on the outcome. These Politics essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies. Disputed results from the 2020 presidential . THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. He shows how the Constitution's text, history, and structure are a crucial repository of collective wisdom, Instead, the delegates settled on a system involving an Electoral College. Could the BJP adopt the Presidential System? Almost all states rely on a "winner takes all" system in which every party in each state creates a slate of electors equal to the number of Electoral College votes the state has. EssaySauce.com has thousands of great essay examples for students to use as inspiration when writing their own essays. Compare and contrast Sample's and McConnell's views about the Electoral College. To better understand the two sides of this historical debate we must first understand how and why the Electoral College system was created as well as its history. Christopher DeMuth wrote: Scholars, pundits and progressives widely despise the Electoral College. The Founding Fathers knew that there needed to be a system like an electoral college in place to ensure the USA flourishes. In 2000, and again in 2020, the outcomes of elections resulted in Constitutional crises. Another reason why the Electoral College vote should be abolished is because, the amount of representatives for each state is not evenly split. Election by national popular vote would dispense with the need for continental diversification. (download the rest of the essay above). should-the-electoral-college-be-abolished-mini-q-answer-key 3/31 Downloaded from whitelabel.nightwatch.io on February 6, 2023 by guest presidential dynasties to congressional dysfunction, Bill Clinton's impeachment to Obamacare. Most Americans, by a wide margin, believe the Electoral College should be abolished. They have long provided what may be, Which of these correctly compares the libertarian and conservative ideals of a model economy? Two Presidential elections (1800 and 1824) have been decided in the House. The people of the United States of America should be voting for the president directly. One thing is for certain though, it's been almost 200 years since Andrew Jackson proposed the abolition of the Electoral College, and yet it is still in place. Each state holds an election for the popular vote. Gomez states that the National Popular Compact would not work because that the United States is a Democratic Republic not a pure Democracy. [3], There have been movements to enact state laws requiring Electors to vote for the winner of the popular election. Ask an Expert. Indian Exceptionalism : A New Creed for a Greater Bharat, Why BJPs Idea of a Constitution Based on Dharma Rajya is Flawed. Certainly not many of the Republicans I know and respect who have not become Democrats but cannot stand their party under Trump. Only Nebraska and Maine allocate the electoral votes proportionately. Was the Electoral College abolished? They argue that selecting a President via state Electors is undemocratic because it gives the Electors discretion, allows the loser of the popular vote to become President, and breaks the principle of one-man-one-vote. 6. Despite sharp polarization of the parties on many issues in 21 st century politics, Republicans and Democrats broadly agree on both longstanding election reform proposals. Editor's Note: In 2016, we asked two professors to debate whether the Electoral College should cease to be the mechanism used for selecting the U.S. president.Here are the yea and the nay. A failure to elect a President, or worse, the choice of a chief executive whose legitimacy might be open to question, could precipitate a constitutional crisis that would require prompt, judicious, and well-informed action by Congress. However, despite displaying clear terms on our sites, sometimes users scan work that is not their own and this can result in content being uploaded that should not have been. But it is not only essential for selecting a chief executive vetted by the entire country, it is vital for nurturing Americas federalism, separation of powers, executive accountability, diversity, and two-party polity. However, technology has made it so that the information . Whoever won Floridas 25 Electoral votes would win the election essays have been movements to enact laws... 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The Republicans i know and respect who have not become Democrats but can not stand their under! There needed to be a system like an Electoral College provides additional leverage to that! That have a fantastic track record Dharma Rajya is Flawed Fathers knew there... % overall in the 2016 election would like to abolish the Electoral College break their,... Not evenly split presidential elections ( 1800 and 1824 ) have been submitted to by.
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let's abolish the electoral college answer key