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2 Feb, 4 tweets, 1 min read
One reason it's so difficult, politically, to get rid of the Electoral College is that the single biggest thing that creates urgency to get rid of it also creates a vocal base of support for it. pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021…
Surveys have consistently found that in most years, people overwhelmingly oppose the Electoral College.

*Except* immediately after presidential elections where it overrules the popular vote. Then support for it goes up because the winning party decides they like it.
By contrast, after elections where the electoral and popular vote agree, there's more cross-party acknowledgement from voters the Electoral College is stupid... but there's far less *urgency* to get rid of it because it isn't causing problems.
I think campaigns to end the Electoral College have to focus more on the ways it silences voters in non-competitive states, and exacerbates partisanship by making each state minority's votes count for nothing. Problems that are with us even when the popular vote isn't overruled.

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More from @fawfulfan

Matthew Chapman Profile picture
31 Jan
Even if the Byrd Rule were eliminated, that wouldn't be a complete end-run around the filibuster — it would just give Democrats a limited number of un-filibusterable bills per year.
Portman is probably right that at this point, that is a more likely route Democrats will take than eliminating the filibuster entirely. Manchin is still the obstacle to this, though.
The benefit to this method of de-facto filibuster repeal is you don't actually need 50 votes in the Senate to do it — Schumer can do it unilaterally, by overruling the parliamentarian every time a non-budget item is ruled invalid in a budget bill. The risk is that...
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
26 Jan
LOL, this is a complete bluff. McConnell has spent years tinkering with Senate rules to ensure Republicans can pass any part of their agenda they want in ways that aren't subject to the legislative filibuster. That's why he's so scared of it going away.
To be clear: a Republican Senate without a legislative filibuster could do all sorts of horrible things. But nothing they can't do already through controlling other parts of government.
What McConnell is really afraid of is that a functional Democratic Senate will dismantle the backroom structures the GOP created to go around Congress for its agenda. That they'll overturn conservative court rulings, reform agencies they've taken over, undo voting restrictions.
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
25 Jan
Because redistricting is coming up soon, I'd like to issue a reminder for lay people: "gerrymandering" does not mean "the districts look weird."
If you want an easy way to tell if a map is a gerrymander, overlay the map on top of a map of the state's large cities and check how often cities are arbitrarily chopped up or grouped with unrelated cities.

Both Democratic and Republican gerrymanders tend to do this.
Republican gerrymanders will group together unrelated small cities and chop up larger cities so most districts containing them are rural.

Democratic gerrymanders will group together unrelated rural areas and chop up larger rural areas so most districts containing them are urban.
Read 4 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
24 Jan
Hot take: general elections should be more democratic, but primaries should be less democratic.
What I mean is this: we should have a system that allows there to be way more than two parties — ranked choice voting or proportional representation — but those parties' should decide their platforms and nominations at the leadership level, with little or no input from voters.
This would ensure voters have the widest range of options possible, but it would also give political parties greater power to course-correct their leadership and agenda when the voting public rejects them.
Read 7 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
21 Jan
Let's be clear. Mitch McConnell doesn't just want to protect the legislative filibuster because he's in the minority. He wants to protect it because it asymmetrically blocks Democrats from passing their agenda, but not Republicans.
Think about it.

Democrats' agenda actually requires legislation. Expanding health care. Creating green jobs. Campaign finance reform. Full voting rights for all. You have to pass a bill in the Senate for all of these.
On the other hand, nothing Republicans want to do requires legislation.

Cut taxes on the rich? That can go in the budget.

Repeal regulations? Executive agencies can do that.

Roll back women's rights, voting rights, gun control? That's what judges are for.
Read 5 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
15 Jan
How exactly did Revali lose to Windblight Ganon?

All the other Blights had some sort of attack or defensive trait that would have made it impossible for the champion to beat them. But I don't see why Revali should have been at a disadvantage to Windblight.
Mipha couldn't beat Waterblight Ganon because she had no ranged attacks to get it on the ceiling.

Daruk couldn't beat Fireblight because he didn't have bombs to block the second phase.

Urbosa couldn't beat Thunderblight because she had no magnesis to redirect the lightning.
But Revali has no obvious weakness to be exploited by Windblight's attack pattern.

He could have dodged the wind blasts and his Great Eagle Bow should have been ideal to stun and counter from a distance.

Did Revali just... suck at using his powers?
Read 4 tweets

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