Gooooo Democracy!

This is about right. Surely many of you have heard of the Republican-backed attempt to install a new format in California for distributing their electors on a district-by-district basis. While the idea is not, in and of itself, horrible, the fact that the Republicans are trying to pass it only in one of the safest Democratic stronghold reeks of partisan chicanery. It's a not-very-subtle attempt to ensure that Democrats, already disadvantaged by the Electoral College system, basically face an impossible hill in the attempt to win the presidency.

I'm generally in favor of the plan discussed in the piece I linked to at the top. It would require states to give their electors to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who won that state's votes. In the bill is language ensuring it only goes into effect once enough states to represent 270 electoral votes have signed up.

The standard rejoinder against these types of arguments is that it leaves small states out in the cold. To which I say, so the fuck what? States without people should not have disproportionately large representation. It's enough of a fucking joke that America, mother of democracy, is home to the US Senate, the single most undemocratic institution in the Western world. That we double down on the problem in the election of our president just makes it worse.

For those not in the know, the short version of the argument goes like this: every state is given electors based on the combined # of Senators and Representatives that it has in the US Senate and House. But all states have a minimum of 3 electors, since everyone gets exactly 2 senators, from Alaska's nearly sub-zero population to California's "we are the 8th largest economy in the world." So states with small populations, which are predominantly so-called red states, have disproportionately large influence in the electoral college system.

Unfortunately, they also have incredibly disproportionately large influence in the Senate, which means that no meaningful fixes to this system will ever come from the federal government. To wit, these things are going to have to start in the states.

And so, The Consistent Fool is throwing all of his not-entirely-insignificant behind the National Popular Vote Plan. Go call your Senator.