Jesse WegmanReseñas

An excellent overview of the history and mechanics of the electoral college that highlights the flaws and aberrations of this bizarre system. Throughout, the author makes cogent arguments for a national popular vote in a way that's conversational yet compelling.

Jesse Wegman takes a journalistic look at the US election process, showing why the Electoral College is outdated and ineffective. In particular, he takes issue with the “winner take all” method of awarding electoral votes to the winner of a state’s popular vote, which currently occurs in all states except two. This method tends to skew the results and occasionally the winner of the national popular vote does not win in the Electoral College. This has happened five times in our nation’s history, most recently in 2016.

Wegman takes the arguments often put forth in support of the electoral college and takes them apart one by one. He notes the ways the world has changed since it was originally conceived and, even then, it was controversial. In addition to the analysis of the Electoral College, he offers a history of the US Constitution, voting rights, and related Supreme Court decisions. The author clearly and cogently states his rationale. It offers food for thought. It will appeal to those interested in US history and politics.

nonfiction; electoral college reform
the absurdity of our electoral college is by now somewhat familiar to everyone, but Wegman gives the topic a complete review and outlines a way to fix it without having to amend the constitution. Further, he systematically dismantles arguments against reform (from both parties), demonstrating that the current system benefits and disadvantages BOTH parties and that it is in everyone's interests (except for maybe voters in the odd few swing states) to make every vote count equally--i.e., not just the ones in the swing states. Lots more to it than that, but I can't sum it all up as eloquently as he.

Even if you don't want to read the whole thing, I recommend picking out a couple chapters--whether you're interested in the history of how the system was designed (slaveholders vs nonslaveholders had to reach a compromise somehow), or how the system has panned out over time (losses for both Reps and Dems), or how to conduct an argument to try to change someone's mind. I listened to the whole book, but didn't fully absorb all of it, and I still learned a whole LOT.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will happen soon enough for the Fall election, with all of the other important issues currently taking center stage, but you never know. The least we can do is educate ourselves.

I think Wegman is on to something…lol.

America is not a true democracy when the person who wins the popular vote can still loose. It’s a very strange democracy the one the US has, though with the Electoral College being the prize to aim for. One person one vote and that’s all would have seen Hilary Clinton win, it would see Biden win. The origins of the Electoral College are rather murky, the Southern slave holding states insisted all of those living in the state he counted to give the bigger Electoral College vote, black people of course didn’t get to vote. There have been moves to shift away from the Electoral College system. The Southern states with large Electoral College votes have continually vetoed any move. I don’t understand that as democracy. I understand one person one vote counted nationally. Those Founding Fathers didn’t trust the common person, might elect someone ‘unsuitable’. If one bothers to read the history of the thoughts in the 1780s, we will see that the slave holding states insisted on counting all people’s living in the state; in Virginia it was estimated that slaves made up 60% of the populace. The white vote, the only people allowed to vote, would have returned much less votes compared to the allocation of the Electoral College votes. There was a ‘three fifths’ compromise where black people were counted as only three fifths of a white resident in the state. Of course the American system is theirs to change, I am merely commenting which is allowed. There have been moves over the years in America to throw out the system as it no longer serves its original intent. Why can't the US get rid of the Electoral College? This is how Trump won in 2016 with less number of votes than Clinton, but more support from the Electoral College. As it is and in this day and age it’s a stupid system. The government of the US is incapable of carrying out the wishes of the majority, due to the corrupted and corruptible electoral system, and this has been the case for some time. That is an abject failure of democracy, especially when it is backed by state sanctioned violence and misinformation. It’s very worrying that 40 odd percent want to vote for that, no matter what the majority thinks, that condemns the country to end its days as a major power in violence. Major issue here is the US claiming to be the oldest/biggest/bestest democracy in the world, while in reality it's barely a democracy to begin with. Never has been an actual properly functioning democracy. Almost as big an issue is that the rest of the world never really offers any serious push back - often quite the opposite in fact - and the entire world suffers because of it (global commentary is slowly, finally, changing though. Europe could try a little harder says little me).

The USA was never a democracy - it was designed by the founders to be a republic, with patrician leaders in charge of the unwashed masses. It's also been obvious that "United States" has always been an oxymoron. They always need enemies - either internal or external. True democracy is one person-one vote...with the make-up of the government reflecting the vote percentages of the electorate. In its current state, it's a corrupted and a gerrymandered version of it.

I am waiting to see if Trump hunkered down in the Whitehouse bunker will have to be extricated in a way reminiscent of the Waco siege, after which he will be brought out in cuffs, minus his wig (of course, it's not a wig, it's a combover, reportedly three feet long when soaking wet and hanging to one side).

Forget the Supreme Court; it's full of wackaroonies, like him and thanks to him.



NB: Why is the healthcare system free in Europe and not in the US? Because the US healthcare system is based on profits and not on the needs of the people. Stupid ah?

This is a book that should be used in middle school to teach the students about what the electoral college is and a history of it. I loved the history given in it from our Founding Fathers through today. I enjoyed the explanation of how it was supposed to work and when it did as well as when it did not. Mr. Wegman explains what went wrong and what happened after as well as explaining what should have happened. I like that he took from the first election where it did not work as expected in 1800 then went to Reconstruction where it went wrong again to the 1960's and the last 20 years.

I liked the solution and his explanation of why we should do it. I also liked that Mr. Wegman took the most popular myths and debunked them in a clear, concise way.

This is an easy read but a fascinating read. It should definitely be read by anyone 12 and over to understand the Electoral College process.