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> It is ruled by a federal government that lost an election by any reasonable measure The electoral college system our country has used for nearly 250 years is
by themgt 10y ago
> It is ruled by a federal government that lost an election by any reasonable measure
The electoral college system our country has used for nearly 250 years is no longer a "reasonable measure" of who won the election?
- dsr_ 10y agoIt is consistent to say that it never was; it just happened to usually align with the popular vote. Suppose there was a little Eastern European country where the election procedures were the same as the USA's. We would certainly criticize them every time the popular vote said A and the weird political procedure said B and got to overrule the popular vote. In fact, if they had oil or it were otherwise advantageous, we would likely invade, fracture them into smaller countries more amenable to our interests, and then abandon them.
- CalRobert 10y agoCorrect. It never really was, but as the country's polarization increases it becomes less and less a reflection of the people's will. If three quarters of the country can vote for you and the other candidate _still_ wins, that's a deeply flawed system. (discussion at http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=569298 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=569298) Until this century we mostly just got lucky, with only two misalignments in the 19th century. We essentially have a rotten borough problem, though few want to acknowledge it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_and_pocket_boroughs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_and_pocket_boroughs Ideally we'd go to preference-based voting, but just eliminating "let's make votes from rural areas vastly more important" as a voting system would be a huge start.