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The U.S. Federal government is not a direct democracy, it is a federal republic directed by representatives of states. If you have a fine idea for a law at this

The U.S. Federal government is not a direct democracy, it is a federal republic directed by representatives of states. If you have a fine idea for a law at this scale, and you want democracy, you have it within your state. For example, California passes all sorts of interesting environmental regulations; and the states regularly weigh on their neighbours and tributaries to have similar laws. > abolish the EC ... to start with No, abolishing the Electoral College will not fix anything unless you think average urban Americans care even one bit about the natural wonder of the country, or have any restraint toward the rural minority.

kasey_junk 6y ago
The rural minority already receives disproportionate representation in the legislative. There is -no- part of the government that provides urban voters with disproportionate representation.
- microcolonel 6y ago
  That's true for the federal government, unless you abolish the EC (the thing I was responding to).
cgrealy 6y ago
>> you think average urban Americans care even one bit about the natural wonder of the country Why would you think they don't? I'll admit this is a massive sweeping generalisation, but as a rule, urban voters tend to swing left and that mostly correlates with environmental advocacy. But more generally... >> abolishing the Electoral College will not fix anything Yeah, it will. For a start, it will fix the problem of the Electoral College existing. It's an inherently undemocratic institution that is completely unnecessary in the 21st century. And that's not a partisan position (I live in NZ so I really don't have skin in the game here). If you're a democrat living in Texas or a republican living in California, you may as well not vote in presidential elections. You could move the presidential election to a Single Transferable Vote system and then you might actually get viable 3rd party candidates as people wouldn't have to worry about "wasting their vote".
- tathougies 6y ago
  > Why would you think they don't? I'll admit this is a massive sweeping generalisation, but as a rule, urban voters tend to swing left and that mostly correlates with environmental advocacy. This is ridiculous. The correlation of left-leaning and environmental advocacy is relatively new. Or rather, conservatives ignoring conservation is a rather new thing. Many of the first conservationists, and the reason we have things like national parks, and such were rural conservatives.
  - dang 6y ago
    Would you please stop posting to HN in the flamewar style and stop using this site for ideological battle? You've been doing these things a lot and they're against the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - tathougies 6y ago
      Sure... will you please delete my account? I'm no longer interested in being around here much anyway.
- kevlar128 6y ago
  The EC exists for a reason and has functioned quite well. Getting 38 states to approve eliminating it is highly unlikely.
Supermancho 6y ago
> > abolish the EC ... to start with > No, abolishing the Electoral College will not fix anything <random rant> Fix? What does that even mean? It would start to bring it back to a direct democracy, expanding the franchise beyond the state, as _you_ pointed out.

kasey_junk 6y ago

The rural minority already receives disproportionate representation in the legislative. There is -no- part of the government that provides urban voters with disproportionate representation.

microcolonel 6y ago
That's true for the federal government, unless you abolish the EC (the thing I was responding to).

cgrealy 6y ago

>> you think average urban Americans care even one bit about the natural wonder of the country Why would you think they don't? I'll admit this is a massive sweeping generalisation, but as a rule, urban voters tend to swing left and that mostly correlates with environmental advocacy. But more generally... >> abolishing the Electoral College will not fix anything Yeah, it will. For a start, it will fix the problem of the Electoral College existing. It's an inherently undemocratic institution that is completely unnecessary in the 21st century. And that's not a partisan position (I live in NZ so I really don't have skin in the game here). If you're a democrat living in Texas or a republican living in California, you may as well not vote in presidential elections. You could move the presidential election to a Single Transferable Vote system and then you might actually get viable 3rd party candidates as people wouldn't have to worry about "wasting their vote".

tathougies 6y ago
> Why would you think they don't? I'll admit this is a massive sweeping generalisation, but as a rule, urban voters tend to swing left and that mostly correlates with environmental advocacy. This is ridiculous. The correlation of left-leaning and environmental advocacy is relatively new. Or rather, conservatives ignoring conservation is a rather new thing. Many of the first conservationists, and the reason we have things like national parks, and such were rural conservatives.
- dang 6y ago
  Would you please stop posting to HN in the flamewar style and stop using this site for ideological battle? You've been doing these things a lot and they're against the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - tathougies 6y ago
    Sure... will you please delete my account? I'm no longer interested in being around here much anyway.
kevlar128 6y ago
The EC exists for a reason and has functioned quite well. Getting 38 states to approve eliminating it is highly unlikely.

Supermancho 6y ago

> > abolish the EC ... to start with > No, abolishing the Electoral College will not fix anything <random rant> Fix? What does that even mean? It would start to bring it back to a direct democracy, expanding the franchise beyond the state, as _you_ pointed out.