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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  • Veedem@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    While I agree with him, it’s also a stupid thing to say out loud during the election when they’re CLEARLY trying to sway moderate and uneasy right leaning voters.

    • Furball@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      I think the electoral college has become pretty unpopular with pretty much everyone except committed republicans in recent years

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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        22 days 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.world
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          21 days 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
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            22 days 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
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              22 days 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
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                22 days 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
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              22 days 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
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                22 days ago

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

                • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world
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                  22 days 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.

            • chaosCruiser@futurology.today
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              22 days ago

              I think there’s a difference between the two. The term “salve” says nothing about what happened. It just tells you how things are. However, the term “enslaved” clearly indicates that the person used to be free, but was later forced into slavery by someone.

              • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                22 days ago

                Words have a definition, slave is the appropriate word to talk about enslaved people and them being enslaved is what makes them slaves therefore it’s implied that they are enslaved if they are slaves. Now stop with the PC bullshit to derail the discussion.

                • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world
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                  22 days ago

                  Derail a thread with a small side suggestion. That’s a lot of pushback to a small request. Almost like you actively wish to not have enslaved people humanized in conversation.

                  You can always just not say it yourself. To actively try and start fights about it implies malice.

              • LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world
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                22 days ago

                Imo it’s more that “enslaved people” emphasizes their humanity, something that slavery itself typically removes from a person. Therefore “enslaved person” can be seen as radical phrasing that works against the goals of slavery

        • Dwraf of Ignorance@programming.dev
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          22 days ago

          I think it was progressive who demanded it to be 3/5 if then conservative had their way they would happily count slaves as two people. It’s was in their favour to do so. Slaves could vote and it inflated their population count which will grant more seat. I’m neither American nor have I been there.

          • Mbourgon everywhere@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

            Nope, but not bad. The free states wanted them to not count for representative purposes, since they couldn’t vote.

            From Wikipedia:

            Slave holding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. A compromise was struck to resolve this impasse. The compromise counted three-fifths of each state’s slave population toward that state’s total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives, effectively giving the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states.

          • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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            22 days ago

            The progressives demanded none to be counted as they wanted slavery abolished. It was the centrists that made the compromise just so the southern states to ratifiy the constitution and join the union.

      • takeda@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Exactly, the result is decided but free starts and for example Republicans in California and New York feel their vote doesn’t matter at all.

        • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          with the amount of money being spent to woo swing state voters I feel like being an “undecided voter” is some kind of career at this point

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Maybe they’re finally realizing that instead of chasing right wing voters they should try to tap into the much larger pool of left-wing voters. Or at least one can hope.

    • The Assman@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      His comments – to an audience of party fundraisers – chime with the sentiments of a majority of American voters

      I guess you missed this bit

        • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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          22 days ago

          Just vote blue no matter who.

          It’s that simple, do that and you’ll uh somehow magically become a lefter country?