And here I was expecting a break in the whining. Shows what I know.
After every close presidential election that the Democrats lose - 2000, 2004, 2016 - a squall of caterwauling oozes forth from Democrats and the media; it's time to abolish the Electoral College!
The Electoral College is one of those things that the powers that be think are just too complicated for regular schlubs to understand - like having an ID to vote. Case in point - this bit from the "Brennan Center", the hard-left PR think tank that's been wearing former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan's legacy like a meat suit for the past several decades:
In line with its mission to promote a fair and robust democracy, the Brennan Center for Justice supports amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College. We also support the National Popular Vote Compact, an agreement among the states to award their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote. The Brennan Center will continue to educate the public and policymakers in the effort to have every vote counted equally.
Of course, if you passed ninth-grade civics (kids under 40, ask your parents), you know that evey vote is counted, but that the founding of this country and the drafting of our Constitution was predicated on a system that carefully balanced power between the raw humbers of big states (like Massachussetts and Pennsylvania, at the time) and the smaller states, a balance without which the union never would have happened. The President is chosen via the custom of the Electoral College, to make sure the Executive Branch, which the President leads, doesn't operate for all time in the interests of the big states that control votes in bulk.
And this was at a time long before Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson, when the Executive Branch had a tiny fraction of the power it has today,
Anyway, the sniveling was pretty constant and palpable after most of the Republican wins over the past quarter century. Both 2000 and 2016 both involved elections where Democrats won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.
The 2024 election was a convincing win for Trump by both measures, of course. You'd think that'd quiet some of the carping.
You'd think wrong:
There's no good civic argument for the electoral college. It was arguably necessary to ensure the ratification of the Constitution, but it's an anti-democratic device that gives some American citizens far more voting power than others, based purely on where they live. pic.twitter.com/AFeKWHJ1ws
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) April 16, 2026
There's no actual argument that it was necessary to pass the Constitution - it was a deal-breaker. As it still should be; our federalist system was designed to help a country full of people who didn't like or trust each other very much to get along in a polity with each other. There was no more reason for Rhode Island or South Carolina to accept subordination to New York or Virginia in 1789 than there is to expect North Dakota and Mississippi to kneel meekly before California and Illinois' depredations today.
Not that some aren't trying. The "National Popular Vote" is an attempt to circumvent the Electoral College by getting states to dedicate their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote:
Much closer to ending the Electoral College than you might think. https://t.co/1Fj4yv3yW4 pic.twitter.com/VrYgMPV6a4
— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) April 14, 2026
If Abigail Spanberger signs it, it's going to be a terrible idea:
HUGE NEWS: Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger just signed HB965 into law.
— AmericanPapaBear™ (@AmericaPapaBear) April 14, 2026Bu
HB965 says that all of Virginia’s Electoral College votes will go to the winner of the national popular vote, no matter who wins the popular vote in our Commonwealth. pic.twitter.com/Oh68QRybVf
But the real question is - why the sudden push to undercut the Electoral College? What's put this new urgency into...
Fox News: Democrats could lose up to 14 net Electoral College seats after the 2030 Census as population shifts favor red states.
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 16, 2026
Projected gains: FL +2, TX +3, ID +1, UT +1
Projected losses: CA -3, NY -1, IL -2, RI -1 pic.twitter.com/f3sXpYwxYY
...oh. Never mind.
