By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SnesTea on 22 September 2020
Edit Thread
IvorEvilen said:
Dulfite said:

It truly is, and should be to everyone. People are ignorant and believe what they are fed. The media could come out with some crazy thing tomorrow, and go on a campaign for it for a month, and you'd see the public opinion change in the polls over it because people are easily manipulated.

Our elected officials, for all their flaws, are considerably less manipulated than the average joe, and therefore are able to make better decisions than the average joe. Stories like "The Circle" like to romanticize the idea of direct democracy without realizing the MASSIVE issues it will have. What happens if 51% of the population wants one thing one day, and change their mind literally the next day? Do laws get changed everyday then, going back and forth depending on who is alive today and who watched the news and was fed lies today, or some some lying facebook ad today?

As a conservative, I would rather have President Bernie Sanders, with Speaker of the House AOC and a 6-3 liberal Supreme Court than I would mob rule with direct democracy. I hope the POPULAR vote count is abolished one day, and we only see the electoral results.

Ya know what, I'll step out of the shadows for this one.

This is a real subtle way of implying that states with smaller populations are smarter/ more educated than the more populous states.  I guess me as a Californian is 3.6x dumber than someone from Wyoming.  And don't even get me started on those Puerto Ricans.  Clearly the 3.2 million of them are all too stupid to be able to have a say in who the next president is.

/sarcasm

You have no idea how INFURIATING it is to live in a COUNTY that has a larger population than 43 states, but only represents 1/4 of the votes for 2 senators.  California has 1/9 the population of the US, and should represent 1/9 of the government.  Under the circumstances, we are ignored, or at worst, we face political retaliation.  For example, Republicans know they'll never win any statewide elections, and since the popular vote does not matter, they have no intention to court voters here.  The Trump administration has repeatedly retaliated against my state and it has made it more blue.  But that doesn't matter to them.

The Electoral College is about disenfranchisement.  Places with less people are given more say in governance, which flies in direct contradiction to the saying:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Under the current system, the only states that get special treatment and attention during elections are swing states.

California does represent 1/9 of the government. In the US House of Representatives. Senators are sent to the Senate to represent the interests of the states. All states are equal in the eyes of the Constitution. Hence, 2 senators per state. State populations are not equal in the eyes of the state. Hence, the US House.