When the US Constitution was written, many people − from those who wrote the document to those on the outside who read it − believed that endowing the president with kinglike powers was dangerous.
It’s promoting the idea that the opinions of politicians from the 1700s carry any more weight than the opinions of doctors from the 1700s.
Adherence to “what the founding fathers wanted” is a toxic meme. They were historical figures, that’s all.
The Supreme Court uses this meme as a totem to excuse motivated reasoning in their decisions and people are simply conditioned to accept the words of 300 year old politicians over the reality of the present.
We can understand the danger of Trump without quoting from old slave owners, pretending that they carry special wisdom.
Would love to abolish the EC and add ranked choice voting nationally.
💯 And mail-in ballots for all voters, and all races have a “none of the above” option, and an actual majority from all eligible voters is required to win, and if “none of the above” wins the election we do a new election with all new candidates.
The purpose of the Electoral College was to guarantee that the president was elected by the states and not the people. So you are half right, the electoral college can interfere if it’s not what the states want. While there are some states that want to always go with the popular vote not all are on board.
More like it was put in place to stop people like Lincoln and FDR. The founders were economic elites, whether slaveowners or rich capitalists, and they were afraid that “the mob” would elect someone who would persue the material interests of the common people, against them, especially in regards to slavery.
I think we need to drop the premise that the Founders were geniuses who’s dusty ass opinions count for jack shit.
The secret is that they were just regular politicians from a long time ago.
What exactly is your point in regards to this article?
It’s promoting the idea that the opinions of politicians from the 1700s carry any more weight than the opinions of doctors from the 1700s.
Adherence to “what the founding fathers wanted” is a toxic meme. They were historical figures, that’s all.
The Supreme Court uses this meme as a totem to excuse motivated reasoning in their decisions and people are simply conditioned to accept the words of 300 year old politicians over the reality of the present.
We can understand the danger of Trump without quoting from old slave owners, pretending that they carry special wisdom.
The Electoral College was put in place, at least in part, exactly to stop the public at large from electing someone like Trump.
And yet, the purpose of a system is what it does.
Would love to abolish the EC and add ranked choice voting nationally.
💯 And mail-in ballots for all voters, and all races have a “none of the above” option, and an actual majority from all eligible voters is required to win, and if “none of the above” wins the election we do a new election with all new candidates.
The purpose of the Electoral College was to guarantee that the president was elected by the states and not the people. So you are half right, the electoral college can interfere if it’s not what the states want. While there are some states that want to always go with the popular vote not all are on board.
More like it was put in place to stop people like Lincoln and FDR. The founders were economic elites, whether slaveowners or rich capitalists, and they were afraid that “the mob” would elect someone who would persue the material interests of the common people, against them, especially in regards to slavery.
What do you think of Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin?