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konnichiwa on 01 November 2016
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SanAndreasX said:
vivster said:

Too bad in the US that would be the exact same as not voting at all. The two party system there is stupid. Here in Germany no party is safe from elimination. You simply cannot rule the country if you do not have at least 50+% of the votes. And since nowadays even the biggest parties struggle to reach even 30% of the votes a single vote has a lot more power because even if there is one strongest party it cannot rule without building a succesful coalition.

Try to envision the same system for the US. Since people vote for 3rd parties and usually the winning party does not get 50% of the votes it would have to work together with one of the smaller parties. That would give people the power to make a difference by voting a 3rd party who now also has the chance to take part in the government.

The problem with the US system isn't that it's a "two party" system, it's the fact that the winner takes all. People vote in gerrymandered blocs called "districts" here, which are drawn up by the majority party in the legislature in most states, blatantly to advantage their side and deny all representation to the opposing party, after the census is counted and Congressional votes redistributed. Arizona has thankfully begun the process of reforming districting to eliminate gerrymandering and hopefully more states will follow suit.

When someone gets past the posts first, all other votes are simply thrown away. Oklahoma is one of the most Republican states in the US, but still has a Democratic population of 40%. Yet, it has 100% Republican representation in Congress and its 7 electoral votes have a 100% chance of going to Donald Trump. 40% of Oklahoma voters are effectively disenfranchised. The same situation exists in Oklahoma's Democratic counterpart, Massachusetts, with regards to Republicans living there.

That said, there is one advantage to the US system: it keeps fringe parties like the Communists and the American Nazi Party out of the government.  They can try infiltrating the Democrats and the Republicans, but that's also extremely difficult.

Yeah I wanted to use that as a point to show USA democracy is kind of fucked up.  i understand that in the old days every state was bascially a country but we are now 2016, I think most people now associate USA as one country so why does something like the electoral college still exist especially for something important as a president...

Because really if you would win in all the small(er) states that are a total of 20-28% of the total popultion you will become president thanks to the electoral college that gaves you more than 50% for those states.

Imagine if tomorow USA and Canada play a Ice hockey/football game and USA has 20 points and Canada 18....Then the referee says each point for Canada is more important because it is smaller in population....   People would riot and be pissed of even the Canadians would even feel sorry but people accept it when choosing a new president...and three times in USA history it has happened that a president won only thanks to the electoral college, it is not that rare..