The Founding Fathers made no provision for political parties, and those who stated any opinion on the subject deplored political parties - George Washington and Benjamin Franklin IIRC.
But the politicians of this new nation were dividing themselves up into parties in GW's first term, and the EC soon became a rubber-stamp body. The election of Donald Trump was the final failure of the EC: he is a demagogue who gladly accepted the help of foreign meddlers.
Even before that final failure, Presidential candidates have long been concentrating their efforts in a few "swing states", ignoring reliably Democratic and reliably Republican ones.
AOC linked to this article, and she annotated screenshots from it:
Why Every Defense of the Electoral College Is Wrong:
Quote:
1. The Electoral College currently exists, therefore it is good.
(A) The founders thought superhard about this, and so we should defer to their judgement.
(B) It would put us on a slippery slope to abolishing the Senate.
2. Abolishing the Electoral College would definitely have this bad effect, for reasons so logically sound I don’t need to provide evidence for them (even though other defenders of the Electoral College insist it would have the opposite effect, which would also be bad).
(A) It would give too little political power to white people.
(B) It would give too much political power to white people.
(C) It would give large states too much power.
(D) It would give small states too much power.
3. Abolishing the Electoral College would plunge our republic into a nightmarish political system identical to the one we currently live under.
(A) Candidates would not campaign much in rural areas.
(B) Third-party candidates would sometimes act as spoilers.
(C) It could lead to a situation where American politics is defined by polarization, and high levels of social animosity.
(D) It would create a political system in which an unqualified “media personality” could win the presidency.
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