The question is no longer if Democrats can pass a popular vote model for president, but whether they have the will or determination to do so. If those states opt to join the compact, it could go into effect as soon as the 2028 presidential election.
Spoiler: No.
I think this speaks to a problem Democrats have that Republicans don’t, which is we insist on each action being fully considered, planned and weighed against alternative uses of energy, whereas Republicans just do it.
The advantage they have is that, by just acting, they can do a lot more, which creates more and more work for us to fight. And what we forget is that, like how they cause problems for us in having to litigate and roll back what they do, what we do also causes problems for them that takes effort to fight.
So instead of pre-defeating it, I think a better conclusion is that we should do for laudable and progressive things what republicans do for morally, constitutionally and legally wrong things: just do as much as fast as we can, and let them worry about spending time and energy fighting it. Sure, we of course follow the law, but stop over-optimizing and planning.
So the reality is, they will have to triage too. And if NPV exists, with bipartisan buy-in (as it seems to poll usually) as the status quo for a few cycles, it may be very costly and probably not worth it for Republicans to fight it.
You know what? Solid point. As long as it doesn’t come at the EXPENSE of bigger fish, I’m all for it.