Tl;dr, it’s fair because democracy is inherently fair. If majorities of Americans favor Democratic policies then those are the policies we should have. Republican-governed states still have the states’ rights afforded to them under federalism. If the Democratic Party overreaches, voters will punish them. But a national government picked by a minority of voters (as it was from ‘16-‘20, minus the GOP losing the House in ‘18) is inherently anti-democratic. No other democracy in the world has a quirk like the Electoral College that allows a losing party to win.
I’d love to get back to a GOP where the front-runner says cringey but well-intentioned things about women, minorities, etc., rather than the GOP we currently have which fails to punish candidates who brag openly about committing sexual assault (and much else besides).
People forget, but Mitt Romney was a strong candidate. So was John McCain. They were just running against an even stronger candidate — a very charismatic, optimistic, history-setting Democrat who marked a clean break with an unpopular Republican (Obama in ‘08) or was an incumbent who had done a decent job (Obama in ‘12).
The GOP learned the wrong lesson from those defeats and decided to turn hard-right with Trump. Yes, Trump “won” in ‘16 but against the least-popular, least-charismatic Democrat in a generation and actually lost by 3 million votes.
Joe Biden wasn’t a much more appealing candidate than Hillary, but by 2020 the 4 years of daily insults and appalling government (especially the Covid meltdown) under Trump led many into the Democratic Party who had never been there before. Myself included. The 2020 election broke turnout records on both sides, but not out of hope. Out of fear.
The electoral affirmative action I’ve described makes the GOP weaker, not stronger. It empowers extremists. It encourages hyperpartisanship and the McConnellist tactics of holding all meaningful legislation hostage.
If the GOP is weaker, then Democrats will be weaker as well, since they will be in competition with a weakened foe.
Who loses? America does.
It’s not my problem to figure out how the GOP can remain nationally competitive under a truly fair system. There’s no divine right for government to be in Republican hands roughly half the time. The GOP must figure that out itself — but the most straightforward way would be tacking back toward the center.