The world's oldest constitutional democracy
An archaic governing structure that is undemocratic by design is being used by one party to subvert elections & attempt to seize power not through force, but by using the country's broken & outdated constitution
An archaic governing structure that is undemocratic by design is being used by one party to subvert elections & attempt to seize power not through force, but by using the country's broken & outdated constitution
"There are so many places in which someone can try to mess with our system"
"It's not just that we don't have a national popular vote, it's that the mechanics we use to send state votes to electoral college gives lots of room for" overturning the result. msnbc.com/all-in/watch/e…
"It's not just that we don't have a national popular vote, it's that the mechanics we use to send state votes to electoral college gives lots of room for" overturning the result. msnbc.com/all-in/watch/e…
"The principles that we claim as our national creed: self-determination, freedom, liberty and democracy" contradict "our founding document [that] has a complicated relationship to democracy and self-rule," says Chris Hayes. open.spotify.com/episode/3oaCRa…
The main problem: there's no such thing as a national election in US.
All elections are state or local, including the presidential in which voters are just choosing state representatives to vote their preferred way in electoral college.
No other democracy is structured this way
All elections are state or local, including the presidential in which voters are just choosing state representatives to vote their preferred way in electoral college.
No other democracy is structured this way
"We do not have a popular vote for president even though we very obviously should considering the current system has led to disasters," says Hayes.
"But now Republicans are perfecting a new spin on the idea people really don't get to choose the president."
"But now Republicans are perfecting a new spin on the idea people really don't get to choose the president."
As conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once said, "the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for president of the United States."
Article 2 of US constitution says state legislators get to set the manner for choosing presidents
Article 2 of US constitution says state legislators get to set the manner for choosing presidents
Election law expert Richard Hasen explains how the new revelations at January 6th commission show plan of attack.
Republicans are arguing the constitution makes state legislatures supreme and they can ignore the vote, sending whichever electors they want. slate.com/news-and-polit…
Republicans are arguing the constitution makes state legislatures supreme and they can ignore the vote, sending whichever electors they want. slate.com/news-and-polit…
To me, all of this suggests that the United States is in bad need of a constitutional convention in order to avert a disaster in the coming years.
But in this atmosphere, it's hard to conceive of how any civilian government could accomplish constitutional change.
But in this atmosphere, it's hard to conceive of how any civilian government could accomplish constitutional change.
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