This is a Canadian asking about the US. Though given that crappy state of things here we could consider it as well.
If the next president isn’t picked as a result of the popular vote but as a result of the system being terrible then a majority of the people of the country will have been wronged.
Instead of doing civil war about it, what if there was a mass movement to just do nothing. Everyone just grabs a chair and sits on their lawn or in a park all day and just chills out instead of working, attending events, or really participating in the economy in any significant way. Take a sick day or somthing if it helps. But anybody can do nothing.
In only a few days, maybe less, the economy whould take a massive hit. Just everyone sits around untill a fair election is called without any electoral college or first past the post nonsense.
Obviously there’s huge challenges to this. Like finding an end condition everyone can agree on. Also getting a representative to ensure the demands had been met. the huge wave of firing, threats, and violence from the other side whould probably have some effect. But the other side is a minority, and could be overwhelmed.
So if big enough, could it work?
In the case of Belgium, our prime minister came from a party that had 8% of the votes.
In France, our PM’s party received 5,41% of the votes. All the parties supporting him received, if we add up all their scores, 28.5% of the votes.
The main difference between a prime minister and a president is the fact that they’re appointed, not elected, no? Little difference when you consider the state of national primaries in the states, but still.