Electoral College is slowly dying, bitches

[dasva]

2. If it goes to straight majority instead of electoral college candidates are going to be forced to pander to the nation instead of 5-8 swing states.

Which states will likely change but I'm highly dubious this will change. If anything it might be even more focused on certain higher population density areas within certain states.

[Melena]

Well to be fair, it's not like those states even get pandered to. When's the last time a candidate did anything more then a fundraiser in a top 5 electoral candidate state like California or Texas?

[archibaldcrane]

Top 5?

Yeah they never go to Florida or Pennsylvania.

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[Melena]

Top 5?

Yeah they never go to Florida or Pennsylvania.

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Ehh, I did my mental math wrong. I thought New York was #3, and for some reason I was thinking Florida and Pennsylvania was 6 & 7.

[Xno Kappa]

Correct me if I’m wrong, wasn’t the entire purpose of the EC was for representation to be proportional to the state rather than urban spirit bombs of votes?

Another random question, or comment, why should a senator from North Dakota have the same clout as one from New York or California?

[Melena]

Correct me if I’m wrong, wasn’t the entire purpose of the EC was for representation to be proportional to the state rather than urban spirit bombs of votes?

Another random question, or comment, why should a senator from North Dakota have the same clout as one from New York or California?

For the first part, yeah, but then again things were much more spread out also when the EC was created. Now it's pretty much a reverse, with the Rust Belt + Pennsylvania/Florida basically dictating the President every year. If you live in any deep red or blue state, your vote don't mean shit for the presidency.

For #2, I think the best way to sum it up is equal representation.

[Zealot]

Maybe we switch to a regional system instead of state-based electoral college?

[Niiro]

Maybe we do popular vote and stop these flawed (dis)proportional representation shenanigans that already have their place in the House where they belong.

The president is not a representative, it's an executive position with equal authority over all citizens, all citizens should have equal say in the election of the office.

[Niiro]

The EC was developed to mitigate the administrative and technological limitations of the era when a nation-wide popular vote would have been difficult and to allow southern states to maintain representation based on their slave populations in presidential elections as they did in the House.

Neither issue persists to modernity and all calls for "well we don't want urban centers deciding everything" are both wrong in the practical sense (anyone appealing only to urban centers would most likely lose the election) and perpetuated as a shield by those who realize they would have to change and adapt their politics if they wanted to capture a majority in a popular vote election.

[dasva]

Another random question, or comment, why should a senator from North Dakota have the same clout as one from New York or California?

There was fear from smaller population states that they would effectively have no voice and would've actually left the constitutional convention otherwise.

[Byrthnoth]

The EC (population term +2) was designed to mitigate the effects of population so VA didn't have like half the votes. The city vs. rural thing wasn't a real dynamic yet.

[GoggleHead]

2. If it goes to straight majority instead of electoral college candidates are going to be forced to pander to the nation instead of 5-8 swing states.

If it goes to straight majority it switches from pandering to those swing states to pandering exclusively to urban populations and rural communities be damned.

3. The country doesn’t need to fracture. Idiots like you need to realize that equality is not a horrible concept, women don’t need to be at home if they don’t want, and we don’t need to set ourselves 200 years back for a supposed better time when everything was progressively worse for people’s rights.

Equality is an absolute myth. Ignoring the truth of Mother Nature has consequences.
Keep preaching at me like I'm some clueless rube though, it's not like I ever held similar beliefs to you and had to re-evalute them when presented with new information. Clearly I'm just a moral reprobate who's never given any thought to the positions I hold.

[Melena]

If it goes to straight majority it switches from pandering to those swing states to pandering exclusively to urban populations and rural communities be damned.


Equality is an absolute myth. Ignoring the truth of Mother Nature has consequences.
Keep preaching at me like I'm some clueless rube though, it's not like I ever held similar beliefs to you and had to re-evalute them when presented with new information. Clearly I'm just a moral reprobate who's never given any thought to the positions I hold.

Calling you a clueless rube is too nice. Equality isn’t a myth and about the only thing I’m waiting to find out is if you’re one of those homicidal incel’s since you seem to have a huge hatred towards any woman not popping out babies while making sandwiches for men.

[Koyangi]

The problem with the EC now, not at it's initial inception, is the fact that so many states have passed laws(?) that require the party that wins in that state even if it's by 50.1% to get it's party appointed electors to cast all votes for that candidate. Instead, if all states had a system like that of Maine, where the electoral votes are split based on the percentage of the votes, that is what is actually the fairest and closest to it's original inception. The EC was also originally designed to help prevent a "bad" candidate from winning because electors can cast their vote in favor of the better candidate.

[Zealot]

If it goes to straight majority it switches from pandering to those swing states to pandering exclusively to urban populations and rural communities be damned.


Equality is an absolute myth. Ignoring the truth of Mother Nature has consequences.
Keep preaching at me like I'm some clueless rube though, it's not like I ever held similar beliefs to you and had to re-evalute them when presented with new information. Clearly I'm just a moral reprobate who's never given any thought to the positions I hold.

You stand by that? You will switch sides given new information?

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[Gredival]

If it goes to straight majority it switches from pandering to those swing states to pandering exclusively to urban populations and rural communities be damned.


Equality is an absolute myth. Ignoring the truth of Mother Nature has consequences.
Keep preaching at me like I'm some clueless rube though, it's not like I ever held similar beliefs to you and had to re-evalute them when presented with new information. Clearly I'm just a moral reprobate who's never given any thought to the positions I hold.

I like how we've evolved from "We were happier with traditional gender roles" to outright "Equality is a myth."

We did it BG.

[archibaldcrane]

No presidential candidate is going to throw out the 20% of the US population that lives in rural areas.

It's not like candidates campaign EVER in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, or the Dakotas as it is under the current system.

53% of the population self-describes their living area as suburban as it is. Urban is only 26%.

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