LDST Event Blog #1- Dr. Kaplan and the Electoral College

Last night I attended Dr. Kaplan’s discussion on the electoral college. Dr. Kaplan was not interested in changing our opinions of the current system, or persuading us to adopt a new one, but he rather explained the effects that new proposed presidential election systems would have on our political institutions. He made a great point, where he mentioned that shortly after losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college, President Trump was asked if he would still have been elected POTUS if the Electoral college was done away with and the president was selected by a purely popular, direct vote of the people. Trump answered “I still would have won, and I would have won by a whole lot more.” This quote, regardless of whether Trump still would have won or not in a purely popular vote, is very important because it demonstrates that the electoral college has a huge effect on the way politicians campaign. Kaplan notes that we can’t just scrap the system, and expect the same results: such as believing that Clinton still would have won the 2016 election. Without the College, Trump would have campaigned in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Clinton would have campaigned in Texas! The Electoral College shapes much of what we understand about American partisanship, regional political identities, campaign strategies and the locations candidates visit. While a simple concept in itself, it has very complicated effects into all branches of American government. This was not something I had previously thought of as I was under the impression that if not for the electoral college, surely Gore would have won in 2000, and Clinton in 2016.
The electoral college is intricately tied with the leadership qualities, and strategies of our candidates. In different types of potential electoral systems, such as a direct popular vote of the people, Kaplan examines the issues that arise, such as the even greater vulnerability of American people to toxic charismatics, like Donald Trump. In a system where the delegates are selected on a proportional basis rather than the winner takes all system, this cultivates coalition building between party lines, which is something that is currently having immensely detrimental effects on European countries, specifically the UK. These different types of systems would force candidates to campaign extensively in mass media markets, empowering the role of the media and promoting the already dangerous relationship between politics and social media. If there is a change that needs to be made to our election process, Dr. Kaplan did a great job of showing how this would affect, and radically change the way political and social institutions operate in the US, a potential change that could cause even greater divides than physical boundaries of congressional districts.