Podcast Mentions
Let the People Pick the President The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College
Jesse Wegman
“Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with…" ― The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amen...
Podcasts
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Quotes
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Podcast
The NPR Politics Podcast
The book was cited by Asma Khalid to illustrate how the Senate and the Electoral College give outsized influence to smaller states, a disparity that has grown dramatically since the nation's founding. The discussion highlighted the increasing population imbalance and warned that this violation of political equality will continue to affect American democracy.
Episode: How Democratic Is American Democracy?
The hosts cited Wegman's book to illustrate how the Senate's equal representation gives disproportionate power to small states compared to large ones.
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Here's how Jesse Wegman, who's the author of a book, Let the People Pick the President, explained it.
Episode: How Democratic Is American Democracy?
The book was cited as an explanation for how Senate representation disparity has grown over time, illustrating the imbalance between small and large states.
"
Here's how Jesse Wegman, who's the author of a book, Let the People Pick the President, explained it.
Episode: How Democratic Is American Democracy?
The author was cited to explain how the Senate gives disproportionate power to smaller states compared to larger states, a disparity that has grown since the founding of the US. He also highlighted how the structure of the Electoral College, which builds upon Senate representation, reinforces this imbalance.
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Here's how Jesse Wegman, who's the author of a book, Let the People Pick the President, explained it.
At the time of the founding, the biggest state was 13 times the size of the smallest state. Today, the biggest state is 70 times the size of the smallest state.
And I think that violation of political equality and that violation of majority rule is going to continue to haunt us through the Senate.
And also, if you take the population trends and just push them out on the graph to 2040, in 2040, we're going to have 70 percent of Americans being represented by 30 senators and 30 percent of Americans represented by 70 senators.
Podcast
Main Justice
Kate Shaw discussed the book in an episode about democracy, highlighting its argument for a popular democracy in the United States and the abolition of the Electoral College. She reviewed the title as a relevant contribution to the conversation on electoral reform.
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Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.