Kamala Harris’s running mate urges popular vote system but campaign says issue is not part of Democrats’ agenda

Kamala Harris’s running mate urges popular vote system but campaign says issue is not part of Democrats’ agenda

Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has called for the electoral college system of electing US presidents to be abolished and replaced with a popular vote principle, as operates in most democracies.

His comments – to an audience of party fundraisers – chime with the sentiments of a majority of American voters but risk destabilising the campaign of Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, who has not adopted a position on the matter, despite having previously voiced similar views.

“I think all of us know, the electoral college needs to go,” Walz told donors at a gathering at the home of the California governor, Gavin Newsom. “We need a national popular vote. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win.”

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  • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
    272·
    1 month ago

    It’s become unpopular with everyone except the people who originally demanded it so they could count their slaves as 3/5 of a vote.

    • sygnius@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 month ago

      I’m pretty sure it’s still very popular for a lot of Republicans considering that conservatives have only won the popular vote once in the last 35-ish years. The only time they won was George W. Bush’s second term after the events of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

      • vxx@lemmy.world
        151·
        1 month ago

        Why though? We call baking people bakers, why shouldn’t we call enlaved people slaves?

        It’s not as if their circumstances become more human that way.

        • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 month ago

          This very succinctly summarizes what I hate about the “unhoused” brand of pedantry. Pretty sure they want shelter more than some rich college kid making sure everyone on the internet gets their fucking nouns right.

          • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 month ago

            Changing the language you use about a thing changes your perception of that thing. This is data driven reality of making small changes to the way you talk actively changes the thought process on it. You can be lazy and not do it, it’s your own language. But that’s all your doing. Being lazy, or actively reactionary.

        • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world
          34·
          1 month ago

          It’s just good to reinforce the idea that enslaved people’s were people who were enslaved. Not a profession, slave was not their job, it was their status.

          Plus studies have shown that by using these people first language, especially while teaching the subject, results in higher empathy for enslaved people and reminds that their status as a slave was one forced upon them and continually so rather than the simple status they were born with.

          It’s not a huge problem or anything, but it isn’t hard to toss in every now and then and only does good.

          • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
            11·
            1 month ago

            “Good” like derailing conversations that were about content and making them about semantics. “Good”.

            • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world
              11·
              1 month ago

              God forbid someone on a thread based system bring up a related topic on the side. Like, is that really your complaint? Oh no guys, the humanization of enslaved people’s is derailing this 3rd person’s quip. Quick, we must stop him!

              Silly billy you are.