4 ms·

A few years ago I might have agreed with you. The fact that the electoral college allowed a person with absolutely no political experience who's primary accomp

A few years ago I might have agreed with you. The fact that the electoral college allowed a person with absolutely no political experience who's primary accomplishments were several failed businesses and some TV spotlights to be president of the United States is an absolute fucking glowing failure. Donald Trump IS the person the electoral college was put in place to stop. They did not do their job. The electoral college needs to be abolished, and while we're at it, we really need some form of ranked-choice voting for president. FPTP is a pathetic voting system, and while you can argue about which alternative is the best one until you're blue in the face, I have never seen an argument that favors FPTP when the main metric is fair representation.

webXL 8y ago
> Donald Trump IS the person the electoral college was put in place to stop. Wrong. It was put in place to stop someone who was only popular in urban areas. You need to carry a majority of states in order to represent the states. There are plenty of other checks to "stop" (curb) the power of the office. The voters can have a big say whether or not those should be invoked this November.
- perl4ever 8y ago
  "You need to carry a majority of states in order to represent the states" The states have never had an equal number of electors, so I believe your claim is false.
perl4ever 8y ago
I think any opinion predicated on the purpose of the electoral college at this point is invalid. That's because it was originally intended to allow the states to choose independent electors, but since they are now bound by the statewide popular vote, any effect of that is unrelated to the original purpose. The fact that sometimes they elect the candidate who did not win the national popular vote is simply a bug in the evolved system, and all defenses of it are post-hoc rationalization motivated by the assumption it will continue to favor Republicans.

webXL 8y ago

> Donald Trump IS the person the electoral college was put in place to stop. Wrong. It was put in place to stop someone who was only popular in urban areas. You need to carry a majority of states in order to represent the states. There are plenty of other checks to "stop" (curb) the power of the office. The voters can have a big say whether or not those should be invoked this November.

perl4ever 8y ago
"You need to carry a majority of states in order to represent the states" The states have never had an equal number of electors, so I believe your claim is false.

perl4ever 8y ago

I think any opinion predicated on the purpose of the electoral college at this point is invalid. That's because it was originally intended to allow the states to choose independent electors, but since they are now bound by the statewide popular vote, any effect of that is unrelated to the original purpose. The fact that sometimes they elect the candidate who did not win the national popular vote is simply a bug in the evolved system, and all defenses of it are post-hoc rationalization motivated by the assumption it will continue to favor Republicans.