Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has been noticeably absent from Twitter for the majority of the week, returned on Friday in a Twitter thread, ranting about the Electoral College and accusing the GOP of being “scared” of a popular vote because “they *know* they aren’t the majority.”
While Ocasio-Cortez has been relatively silent on social media over the past week, she made waves after posting a video on Instagram Monday, mocking the Electoral College, and by consequence, Middle America’s voice.
“Alright everyone it’s been a minute. We’re coming to you live from the Electoral College,” she said as her video panned to empty plainlands.
“Many votes here, as you can see. Very efficient way to choose leadership of the country. I mean, I can’t think of any other way. Can you?” she asked:
She followed her video with an article from the Intelligencer, which supposedly debunks the need for the Electoral College.
“To all the Republicans getting big mad bc the electoral college is, in fact, a scam,” she wrote, referring to an article titled “Here’s Every Defense of the Electoral College — and Why They’re All Wrong.”
The backlash was swift, but the freshman lawmaker doubled down Friday.
“I see Fox News is big mad about abolishing the electoral college,” she began, listing off reasons she believes it is outdated and nonsensical. One of the reasons the GOP opposes abolishing the age-old system, Ocasio-Cortez suggested, is because it “knows” it is not the majority:
Ocasio-Cortez’s assessment, of course, is patently false.
As Breitbart News explained:
The Founding Fathers designed the Electoral College as a safeguard against mob rule, essentially preventing high population areas — such as the modern day Northeast Coast and California West Coast — from determining the outcome of presidential elections. It gives flyover America a proportional voice in choosing the leader of the nation — something critics, such as Ocasio-Cortez, seem to overlook.
“It will be Los Angeles and New York, Malibu and Manhattan, that will have a disproportionate amount of voice in these elections,” Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk told Breitbart News at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas, Texas, in June.
“What makes the Electoral College so brilliant and so amazing is that it forces candidates to go to a diverse range of states,” he continued.
“When you have the Electoral College, it really forces broad-based coalition buildings,” Kirk added. “Imagine, if you had a national popular vote, it’s not as if there will be only two candidates; it will become highly fractionalized.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s initial rant prompted Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) to blast the freshman lawmaker, reminding her that the elimination of the Electoral College would silence voters in her state, Iowa.
“Actually @AOC, eliminating the Electoral College would silence our voices here in Iowa and in many other states across the country,” Ernst wrote. “This is just more evidence of how out of touch the Democrats have become”:
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