'@Nisse'_Hult You seem pretty well-informed on the U.S. for a European, so I am not sure why you don't know that our constitution has been amended a number of times over the years. The core document is still there, of course, because it's a timeless, brilliant piece of work, but we make changes to it as needed to deal with problems. After the Civil War, in fact, there was a batch of three amendments that were added, including one that tossed out that 3/5th nonsense. But...even then, we realized that the basic structure of the electoral college was good, which is why we kept it. It would have been easy to get rid of at that time if we needed to.
The only reason you hear about it today is that the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner...they decided to go all-in on identity politics, and as a result their support has collapsed into the city cores and coastal enclaves. The rest of us are watching California collapse and the cities kill themselves, and marveling at the fact that they can't or won't change course. The only thing saving the country as a whole from that fate is the electoral college, and we aren't about to give that up. And since it takes a supermajority of states to amend the constitution (Thanks, founding fathers! You're damn right we deify them), it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
And as for a Civil War II here...google up a county-level Red vs. Blue map from our last election, and take a close look at it. Those are going to be the sides in the next conflict. Now consider where on the map that the food is grown, the power is generated, the raw materials are mined, et cetera. It won't be a set-piece military conflict like the last one, anyway...even those red areas are about 40% blue, and the same amount of red on the other side, so it's going to be more of a national knife fight in a phone booth than anything. But there's absolutely no question how it will turn out...and it won't be to your liking.
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'@Nisse'_Hult You seem pretty well-informed on the U.S. for a European, so I am not sure why you don't know that our constitution has been amended a number of times over the years. The core document is still there, of course, because it's a timeless, brilliant piece of work, but we make changes to it as needed to deal with problems. After the Civil War, in fact, there was a batch of three amendments that were added, including one that tossed out that 3/5th nonsense. But...even then, we realized that the basic structure of the electoral college was good, which is why we kept it. It would have been easy to get rid of at that time if we needed to.
The only reason you hear about it today is that the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner...they decided to go all-in on identity politics, and as a result their support has collapsed into the city cores and coastal enclaves. The rest of us are watching California collapse and the cities kill themselves, and marveling at the fact that they can't or won't change course. The only thing saving the country as a whole from that fate is the electoral college, and we aren't about to give that up. And since it takes a supermajority of states to amend the constitution (Thanks, founding fathers! You're damn right we deify them), it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
And as for a Civil War II here...google up a county-level Red vs. Blue map from our last election, and take a close look at it. Those are going to be the sides in the next conflict. Now consider where on the map that the food is grown, the power is generated, the raw materials are mined, et cetera. It won't be a set-piece military conflict like the last one, anyway...even those red areas are about 40% blue, and the same amount of red on the other side, so it's going to be more of a national knife fight in a phone booth than anything. But there's absolutely no question how it will turn out...and it won't be to your liking.