“Republican lawmakers who control the Michigan Legislature say they ‘vehemently reject’ the plan for the battleground state to award its presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote. Seventeen of the 20 Republicans in the state Senate and 40 of the 57 GOP lawmakers in the state House signed a letter last week. The legislators’ message, which is addressed to ‘Michigan voters,’ came after a ballot proposal committee announced a petition campaign that aims to have the state join the national popular vote compact. ‘It is imperative that the candidate who receives Michigan’s electoral votes is determined by Michiganders – and not by voters in other parts of the country. Simply put: Michigan’s votes for president must only be determined by Michigan’s voters. The voters of Michigan should not have their will determined by influences of other states. It would be a mistake to abandon a system so essential to our Republic.’ The letter labeled the national popular vote proposal ‘a disastrous idea’ that ‘should remain on the scrapheap of American history’ and would mean Michigan surrenders its ‘relevance’ as a swing state” the Detroit News reports.

These MAGA Republicans are right to be freaking the fuck out, as a petition drive in the state has a solid – if still far from certain – path to passage. If a statewide petition receives the minimum required amount of signatures (340,047 in this case as it’s a fixed percentage of the voting age population) it’s then handed to the state legislature. If it fails, which it will, given the GOP majorities in the state House and Senate, the measure is then put directly to voters in 2022.

Can’t help but laugh at the panicked squirming here. They can’t come up with anything better than “You’ll be sorry!” in their desperate pleas to cling to bullshit system that brought upon us the worst president in American history. “It is imperative that the candidate who receives Michigan’s electoral votes is determined by Michiganders – and not by voters in other parts of the country” is such horseshit. Nobody in Michigan or any of the 49 states, whether they voted for Trump or Biden in 2020, gave a fuck who won that particular state so much as they wanted to make sure the other guy lost the White House – save for the hardcore of well-informed Trump fanboys in swing states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan who knew full well he was never going to get more votes total nationwide than Biden. Just like the fanboys who signed this letter.

As we’ve written here before, the Electoral College system depresses turnout for both sides. It’s just as pointless to vote for a Dem presidential candidate in Arkansas as it is to vote for a Republican presidential candidate in Oregon. Abolishing it would make down-ballot races in presidential years much more competitive everywhere because people would be far more motivated to turn out. We’ll allow the Michigan GOP’s self-interested “relevance” argument here, that it’s an obvious plus for all Michiganders when presidential candidates pitch straight for them, but swing state status doesn’t always last – just ask Virginians, Coloradans, and Indianans.