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Check out the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact which is kind of what you are describing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUX-frlNBJY https://www.youtube

Check out the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact which is kind of what you are describing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUX-frlNBJY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUX-frlNBJY

aaronbrethorst 6y ago
Washington and California are already signatories. Naturally, it's the red states that are dragging their heels, as they feel like they have the most to lose. If Texas manages to finally flip during this presidential election, though, I'd say all bets are off and the NPVIC might finally become law of the land.
- kmonsen 6y ago
  I don't think it is meaningful if Texas flips, only if it becomes a swing state. If Trump looses Texas he will already have lost the election a long time ago so it doesn't really matter. Note that some states with almost similar number of electoral votes are going in the other direction. Florida is becoming more safe red all the time, and PA is a swing state and might become safe red at some point.
  - aaronbrethorst 6y ago
    only if it becomes a swing state That's what it flipping would mean. TX was purple. Then it became red. Its demographic trends[0] show it coming into play again. The good news is that under a national popular vote, a Republican could probably survive a narrow popular vote loss in Texas or Florida and still win the presidency, because every GOP vote in those states would still count toward a national popular vote majority. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/28/gop-national-popular-vote-227915 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/28/gop-natio... [0] At least as long as the Republican Party is adamantly anti-immigrant. https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/20/texas-hispanic-population-pace-surpass-white-residents/ https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/20/texas-hispanic-popul...
    - kmonsen 6y ago
      Swing state and flipping is (or can be thought of as) different things. The democrats can possibly win Texas this year, and Beto was fairly close. But if Biden wins Texas the election is already long over, he will have won more than 270 delegates for sure. If you look at the snake chart here: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/ https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/ you can see Texas if 6/7 states away from being the swing state for this election. Currently if Texas goes democratic there is realistically no path for republicans to win a presidential election. To say it a different way, at some point if the democrats gets popular enough they win every state. That doesn't mean that every state is a swing state, just that people are fed up with that party. Long term the demographics are not looking good for Texas GOP, based on current voting trends. Most likely the party will adept and come up with new policies to attract different voters. Or you know suppress the vote and rig the elections.
austincheney 6y ago
It’s great video and it seems a fair and honest explanation of the electoral college. I completely disagree with the idea of a national popular vote subverting the interests of an electorate. Just as the video explained the concept of US government is republican, representative, and based upon compromise opposed to purely popularity which is a democracy. The fear is that a collective mob will dictate priorities to a disenfranchised minority without a balanced recourse, which sounds like something close to separate yet equal.
- xref 6y ago
  “Collective mob”, aka the majority of the population? Remember the government was setup as a republic to ensure a minority of the population, landowning white males, retained power regardless of demographics. By-and-large people of color, the poor, and women were not allowed to vote. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_...
  - austincheney 6y ago
    That isn't historically accurate. The constitution intentionally imposed representational government to ensure dual-federalism as a necessary means to supersede the prior government, Articles of Confederation. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_federalism#Constitutional_origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_federalism#Constitutional... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation
- vkou 6y ago
  > I completely disagree with the idea of a national popular vote subverting the interests of an electorate. Citation needed. The electoral college does not represent the interests of the electorate more than a popular vote does. We don't go ask, say, Catholics which presidential candidate they prefer, and then award the winner the entire Catholic vote (including those who have been disenfranchised from voting, or who didn't vote). Yet we do that with states.

Check out the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact which is kind of what you are describing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUX-frlNBJY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUX-frlNBJY

aaronbrethorst 6y ago

Washington and California are already signatories. Naturally, it's the red states that are dragging their heels, as they feel like they have the most to lose. If Texas manages to finally flip during this presidential election, though, I'd say all bets are off and the NPVIC might finally become law of the land.

kmonsen 6y ago
I don't think it is meaningful if Texas flips, only if it becomes a swing state. If Trump looses Texas he will already have lost the election a long time ago so it doesn't really matter. Note that some states with almost similar number of electoral votes are going in the other direction. Florida is becoming more safe red all the time, and PA is a swing state and might become safe red at some point.
- aaronbrethorst 6y ago
  only if it becomes a swing state That's what it flipping would mean. TX was purple. Then it became red. Its demographic trends[0] show it coming into play again. The good news is that under a national popular vote, a Republican could probably survive a narrow popular vote loss in Texas or Florida and still win the presidency, because every GOP vote in those states would still count toward a national popular vote majority. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/28/gop-national-popular-vote-227915 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/28/gop-natio... [0] At least as long as the Republican Party is adamantly anti-immigrant. https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/20/texas-hispanic-population-pace-surpass-white-residents/ https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/20/texas-hispanic-popul...
  - kmonsen 6y ago
    Swing state and flipping is (or can be thought of as) different things. The democrats can possibly win Texas this year, and Beto was fairly close. But if Biden wins Texas the election is already long over, he will have won more than 270 delegates for sure. If you look at the snake chart here: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/ https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/ you can see Texas if 6/7 states away from being the swing state for this election. Currently if Texas goes democratic there is realistically no path for republicans to win a presidential election. To say it a different way, at some point if the democrats gets popular enough they win every state. That doesn't mean that every state is a swing state, just that people are fed up with that party. Long term the demographics are not looking good for Texas GOP, based on current voting trends. Most likely the party will adept and come up with new policies to attract different voters. Or you know suppress the vote and rig the elections.

austincheney 6y ago

It’s great video and it seems a fair and honest explanation of the electoral college. I completely disagree with the idea of a national popular vote subverting the interests of an electorate. Just as the video explained the concept of US government is republican, representative, and based upon compromise opposed to purely popularity which is a democracy. The fear is that a collective mob will dictate priorities to a disenfranchised minority without a balanced recourse, which sounds like something close to separate yet equal.

xref 6y ago
“Collective mob”, aka the majority of the population? Remember the government was setup as a republic to ensure a minority of the population, landowning white males, retained power regardless of demographics. By-and-large people of color, the poor, and women were not allowed to vote. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_...
- austincheney 6y ago
  That isn't historically accurate. The constitution intentionally imposed representational government to ensure dual-federalism as a necessary means to supersede the prior government, Articles of Confederation. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_federalism#Constitutional_origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_federalism#Constitutional... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation
vkou 6y ago
> I completely disagree with the idea of a national popular vote subverting the interests of an electorate. Citation needed. The electoral college does not represent the interests of the electorate more than a popular vote does. We don't go ask, say, Catholics which presidential candidate they prefer, and then award the winner the entire Catholic vote (including those who have been disenfranchised from voting, or who didn't vote). Yet we do that with states.