4 ms·

Aristotle and others gave some thought to the polity vs. democracy. The electoral college is one of the checks on the possibility of the tyranny of the masses,

Aristotle and others gave some thought to the polity vs. democracy. The electoral college is one of the checks on the possibility of the tyranny of the masses, polity perverted to democratic demagoguery. The crude version is: The red states feed the blue states, so better keep them happy - electoral college is one of the checks that performs that function.

perardi 6y ago
The red states feed the blue states, so better keep them happy - electoral college is one of the checks that performs that function. You’d think the giant bribes—oops, I mean, farm subsidies would help with that. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/politics/trump-farmers-subsidies.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/politics/trump-farmers...
- perardi 6y ago
  And for those downvoting me: I grew up in a town called Farmington. My family gets these big fat subsidies. Which I sure do appreciate! Doesn’t mean it’s not a tremendous distortion of the market and the environment.
nradov 6y ago
That depends which blue states you mean. California and some others are net agricultural exporters.
geofft 6y ago
Wait, do the red states actually feed the blue states? https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/state-export-data/annual-state-agricultural-exports/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/state-export-data/ann... says the top exporters are California (blue), Iowa (purple), Illinois (blue), Minnesota (blue), Nebraska (red), and Texas (red). And even so, the margins are not huge - at most about 2/3 and 1/3, and usually closer - so the idea of "red states" or "blue states" doesn't quite make sense, I think. EDIT: I ran the data - looking at the 2020 results (and rounding off Maine to D and Nebraska to R), "blue" states have $64B agricultural exports and "red" states have $73B agricultural exports. So the answer is that while red states export a bit more, it can hardly be described as one feeding the other.

perardi 6y ago

The red states feed the blue states, so better keep them happy - electoral college is one of the checks that performs that function. You’d think the giant bribes—oops, I mean, farm subsidies would help with that. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/politics/trump-farmers-subsidies.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/politics/trump-farmers...

perardi 6y ago
And for those downvoting me: I grew up in a town called Farmington. My family gets these big fat subsidies. Which I sure do appreciate! Doesn’t mean it’s not a tremendous distortion of the market and the environment.

nradov 6y ago

That depends which blue states you mean. California and some others are net agricultural exporters.

geofft 6y ago

Wait, do the red states actually feed the blue states? https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/state-export-data/annual-state-agricultural-exports/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/state-export-data/ann... says the top exporters are California (blue), Iowa (purple), Illinois (blue), Minnesota (blue), Nebraska (red), and Texas (red). And even so, the margins are not huge - at most about 2/3 and 1/3, and usually closer - so the idea of "red states" or "blue states" doesn't quite make sense, I think. EDIT: I ran the data - looking at the 2020 results (and rounding off Maine to D and Nebraska to R), "blue" states have $64B agricultural exports and "red" states have $73B agricultural exports. So the answer is that while red states export a bit more, it can hardly be described as one feeding the other.