Comment on The Reason for the Electoral College
Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 1 month agoI’m obviously aware of electors. They’re selected by what you called a ‘popularity contest’.
A ‘fair vote for president’ is not really what I’d call the electoral college. Why would my vote count for more in Wyoming than Florida? It’s not consistent either. Large states still have way more power, so I’m not sure what that’s solving.
Okay, glad we can agree on swing states. How could that change under the current system, though? I guess small population states are never going to be as popular for campaigning as places where you can go visit 20x the population in just one city.
The left complains about this system because gives conservatives power disproportionate to their actual numbers, while we are still nominally a democracy. If there was anything like reasonable bipartisan legislative work, it might be better, but things have become so contentious. And yes, I don’t expect to see it change because conservative states would have to choose to give up power.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Historically they didn’t have to go off the popular vote. It is a check and balance that many states have abandoned.
You are still missing who votes. You seem to think you vote, but it is really the state that votes. That is why your vote in Wyoming counts more.
but it is balanced by the other states. They don’t have as much clout as they could.
I don’t know that it can be changed in our current system but the swing states change over time. Florida use to be a swing state. Texas will become one in the next ten years or so. Maybe as early as after this election. THey went from a solid red to a light red.
Not really. Since we are state based government, a popular vote would give to much power to blue states vs red states which are the majority of the country.
Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Uh… no, that’s my point. If electors are selected by a popular vote, that’s the vote. Very rare for electors to switch candidates.
This states thing is a questionable proxy system. We are sort of, theoretically, a republic of states. Sure. However, it’s a flawed system that isn’t quite relevant to how the country has developed. It’s silly to act like a system invented 250 years ago will always be the best or most effective. The founders of the country didn’t expect for the systems to never change. They also didn’t expect a party duopoly and hoped to avoid the current situation.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Because 33 states have made laws which I think are unconditional. The electors are a check and balance of the system. The idea is to prevent the wrong type of person being elected.
Not they did did. That’s something very uniquely American that grew and stuck. It’s a shame. More parties would be better.
Our system was designed to be anti-democratic. We were designed to be a republic.
If we were a democracy, being gay would still be a crime. We don’t want that. We have the constitution to help balance things out. People could vote for really bad ideas that destroy the country.
Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
i would love more parties and more choices. If we could get something besides FPTP voting that would be great.