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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 137448
Posted: 07 November 2026 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I’ve long thought we would be better served by a parliamentary system.

The only time I can think of where such a system would have failed us was Watergate. Under a parliamentary system, there would have been a None Confidence vote immediately, and Nixon would have been kicked out.

It was his clinging to office that allowed further and deeper probes that unearthed more and more malfeasance.

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Vinny Valenti
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Joined: 17 April 2004
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Posted: 07 November 2026 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I've been thinking along those lines for the past decade. I guess we invented impeachment to provide the way to replace the party representative while keeping the party in power, but we've seen how effective that is nowadays, and it's not like the voters get a direct say in the process, anyway.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 07 November 2026 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Thanks to the utter absurdity of the Electoral College, voters don’t really get a direct say in anything!!
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Evan S. Kurtz
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Posted: 07 November 2026 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Potentially good news in that regard, JB. Democrat-controlled states have been moving towards nullifying the Electoral College by passing laws which mandate their electors must support the candidate who won the majority of votes, regardless of which candidate won the most votes in that particular state. 

At this point, if they chose to prioritize the matter, Democrats control enough states that something like 283 electorates would go to the popular vote winner, thus surpassing the 270 needed to be President. However it's not certain if Democrats will actually prioritize this, there were several Democratic-controlled states which had the opportunity to pass this law who have declined to do so, and there would probably be a legal battle involving the Supreme Court if it ever actually became a thing.
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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 07 November 2026 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Back in the wake of the 2024 election, the one sliver of hope I'd noted that Trump wouldn't be able to screw with the midterm results so easily in swing states was that the majority of them had Democratic Governors. I'm definitely hopeful now that they do make an active push to abolish the Electoral College. Though there's no way it could be adopted before the 2028 election; it would be subject to a SCOTUS case from all of the GOP-led states whose political leverage would crumble if the EC were done away with - most notably the Race Belt states of the northern midwest. 

Though interestingly, I suspect Trump wouldn't care one way or the other, since he now will also be at war with his own party and could give even less of a shit about their fortunes going forward.
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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 07 November 2026 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I again question the idea of a Parliamentary system as superior to ours, simply because I don't look around the world and see it as something that has in any way forestalled other countries from truly self-destructing. Bibi has risen to the role of PM despite having been indicted for fraud and bribery; Cameron basically dismantled the UK's financial power by allowing the Brexit vote; etc. 
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