What Changes Could The U S Make To Their System......

[ToraToraTora]

......so that their people get a decent choice?
This question was prompted by Err indoors, she suggested a maximum age, say 60? I suggest a funding limit, apparently they spent $14bn this time! so Max $500m each?? Anyway what other suggestions do you have? Not that they'll change anything, as TGM once said, "you can always rely on the Americans to do the right thing, ...once they've exhausted every other possibility"

[jim360]

I completely agree that the Electoral College System should be scrapped, but the problem is that to do so would run against a huge number of issues sacred to the US. The Constitution is one thing: it can be amended, sure, but, with only one meaningful exception, amendments tend to add to the Constitution rather than take away from it. The States are the other: the Electoral College hands power to several states that might otherwise have little or none. And the Union is the third: the problem is that, in a sense, there is not "one" presidential election, but rather 50 separate ones. To get rid of all of that would be to in effect do away with the Union and see the US as a single country, the States relegated to little more than local authorities.

Put simply, I don't see this sort of reform happening any time soon. Smaller changes, to funding, ages of candidates, length of time between the election and the inauguration -- those are more meaningful. The idea, I think, of a large gap between the election, the "actual" election, and the inauguration, is to allow for a smooth transition in a country that was at the time too large for this to work in a day -- but this no longer makes sense, and, in any case, transitions in most other countries happen in a matter of hours with a minimum of fuss. It also seems that the transition was built on the idea that, once the campaign was over, the losing candidate would see it in their best interests to lead into the next administration, rather than do their best to frustrate any transition. Trump would be no means be the first to exploit the 70-odd day transition period to do a bunch of stuff that nobbles the next president, but he is certain to be the most enthusiastic about this.