This seems to suggest that the reason why people are protesting is because Trump won the election instead of Clinton. That would be completely missing the point. People are protesting against Trump and his policies, because of Trump and his policies. If Clinton was elected and engaging in obvious lies and destructive practices, then I would hope and assume that these people would be protesting against her as well.
What has compromised the U.S. as a representative democracy is generations worth of people who like to think that government is “set-and-forget” convenience where people get involved only every four years and then go back to work with the trust that they are being respected and cared for.
Gosh now that you mention it, it does seem like people suddenly care more about the electoral college in the aftermath of an election in which the person who got the most votes didn’t win.
idk, the United States as viewed through popular culture and through the online discussions of websites mainly frequented by well educated, liberal middle class people?
I noticed you never directly answered my first question;
Do you live in the US?
Again, it doesn’t negate the value of your opinion if you don’t; it just means that whatever consequences happen likely won’t effect you as immediately as it will my countrymen.
Edit: but there’s a few of your nukes in a bunker not too far from here. Do you think your outgoing president might perhaps recall them before January? I’d really appreciate that.
why was this not addressed before? the two examples in the 19th century are probably long forgotten but Bush/Gore was not long ago and created discussions without any plan of action I can remember
Seriously? No. It wasn’t. There was never a point in the past 200 years where a number of groups of people weren’t agitating for change - from enslaved peoples, to women, to segregated African Americans, to religious dissenters, to labor movements, to the LBGQT, etc and so on. There is a loooong history of people opposing our political system and trying to make it more transparent, more fair, more equitable, and more democratic. [quote=“anon85905360, post:125, topic:89391”]
Is that feminine self hatred or something?
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Do you think such a think doesn’t exist? [quote=“anon85905360, post:125, topic:89391”]
Of course there’s loads of racists and misogynist among his voters, but that can’t be the only factor.
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Can we stop doing this, because no one said that. They still voted for a racist and a misogynist.
I kind of feel like this old concern for protecting smaller states by over-representing them in the Congress and EC has created a system that worked to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, there’s a missing mechanism for protecting the larger states from the smaller ones that’s massively hosed us for decades now on healthcare reform, gun control, abortion, [litany of other policy issues], and enough presidential elections that I’m comfortable with blaming an existing system that holds urban populations hostage to the whims of poorly educated rural voters.
If we did a poll on this a year ago, do you think that the opinions here would be significantly different? Perhaps some people are only now re-thinking how the U.S. presidential elections work, but I have encountered quite a few people who have always been critical of this.
There are always countless alternatives, but people habitually disregard all but the D and R candidates, who have had this same entrenched cat-and-mouse status quo for decades. Others are written off as not being viable because they aren’t participants in the same two parties. Why people still vote within parties that they don’t trust truly boggles my mind. I really do think it is more Stockholm syndrome than politics.
ETA: If everybody who said that they distrusted the current D and R parties actually voted that way, the problem would practically take care of itself.
No he won’t. Don’t forget whatever he does will spill over into the rest of the world. He’s in charge of one of the most powerful country on earth. Everyone is going to be impacted by his policies, not just us.
I’ll see what I can do, but I don’t recommend holding your breath while you wait.
Yep, it’s easy to not freak out as much, when you’re not living right at ‘ground zero’ for the hit you’re about to take; but as you said, what impacts the US eventually impacts the rest of the world.
Is that really what the Electoral College was for?
This reads to me like the EC was considered as a more democratic system than letting Congress choose, not to suppress the vote from populous states. i.e. to increase the voice of the people.
The Constitutional Convention in 1787 used the Virginia Planas the basis for discussions, as the Virginia delegation had proposed it first. The Virginia Plan called for the Congress to elect the president.Delegates from a majority of states agreed to this mode of election. However, a committee formed to work out various details including the mode of election of the president, recommended instead the election be by a group of people apportioned among the states in the same numbers as their representatives in Congress (the formula for which had been resolved in lengthy debates resulting in the Connecticut Compromise and Three-Fifths Compromise), but chosen by each state “in such manner as its Legislature may direct.” Committee member Gouverneur Morris explained the reasons for the change; among others, there were fears of “intrigue” if the president were chosen by a small group of men who met together regularly, as well as concerns for the independence of the president if he was elected by the Congress. Some delegates, including James Wilson and James Madison, preferred popular election of the executive.
But there IS a plan, which has already been enacted into law in 11 states, including California, which has the largest number of electoral votes. If we can get enough additional states to join in this will effectively guarantee the winner of the popular vote will get the presidency. Much easier to enact than a constitutional amendment.
It is indeed unfortunate that this plan hasn’t been garnering more attention over the years, but it’s certainly not a brand new effort tied to this year’s result.
