Majority rule is the "heart-blood" of any democracy. What infects that heart-blood is the manipulation of majority-rule of the popular vote by means of the Electoral College AND Gerrymandering.
No other country on earth (that I know of) manipulates the popular-vote in that party-collusive manner. It is not really a matter of "who is worse at manipulating the mechanism". Both parties do it because "that's the name of the game" under current rules.
It's time for Americans to become aware as to how dishonestly the game is played. A national referendum could do a world of good by renouncing the 12th amendment. Gerrymandering can be done away with by Congress.
Aint gonna happin? Yes, I am afraid so - not until Americans wake-up to the facts and WANT to change voting procedures ...
A national referendum to amend the Constitution?
Were you born clueless or have you just lost all of your clues along the way?
Federalism, as defined in our Constitution, demands that the various states determine the preference of their citizens and that the preferences of the various states then be reflected by the votes of the Electors in the Electoral College.
The system to determine that preference within each of the states is pretty much left open to be determined by each of the various states.
You seem to want to change this without understanding what it is, why it is or how this is a pretty ingenious method to maintain the union.
Absent Gerrymandering, how would you propose that Congressional districts be defined?
Are there any thinking individuals that do not understand that politics is a corrupt and corrupting arrangement of influence peddling and power brokering?
The answer is NOT to contrive a system, as you suggest, that further centralizes power to the remote central location of Washington DC.
The answer is to reverse the trend of the last 100 years and return the power to the people.
The answer is not to figure out a new way to choose the powerful chief executive. The answer is to strip the power from the DC Complex.
The best government is the government closest to the inspection of those governed.