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It's about the people, not the politicians. The fact that campaign strategy matters more than campaign platform is a huge weakness in the current system.
by mch82 10y ago
It's about the people, not the politicians. The fact that campaign strategy matters more than campaign platform is a huge weakness in the current system.
- ng12 10y agoIt's like that by design. Representative democracy is intended to limit the ability of the majority to shoehorn the minority -- in this case the coastal population centers vs. the rest of the country.
- benchaney 10y ago>Representative democracy is intended to limit the ability of the majority to shoehorn the minority That is a benefit of certain aspects of our political system, but not the electoral college. The electoral college only serves to introduce bizarre volatility into the elections.
- pc86 10y agoThis is a nice sound bite (kind of), but doesn't bear out the actual facts. The EC was designed specifically to ensure that States (in the big-S, Constitutional meaning) decide the President, not the people.
- benchaney 10y agoThat's true, but doesn't really contradict what I said.
- pc86 10y agoIt directly contradicts the last line of your statement. The EC does not exist "to introduce bizarre volatility"
- benchaney 10y agoAllowing states to control the elections is a mean not an end. Given that the vote of states are determined by a popular vote within the state, the only end that is accomplished by the EC is introducing volatility.
- mmanfrin 10y agoNo it's not, it's like that as an artifact of what it used to be (that the President was elected by electors, not by the people).
- ng12 10y agoRight, and it was up to the state to decide how the electors were elected. The intended goal is the same -- a midpoint between State-level republicanism and populist democracy.