Chrkeller said:
The system is setup to ensure a couple of states don't rule the country, which is quite an intelligent system. Winning the PV, while losing the EC, means liberals do well on the east and west coast, while doing poorly in middle America. Middle America is the average person.  Meaning their messaging is complete shit via limited appeal.  Also, and I'm baffled people don't see this, change the rules and voting behavior changes...  so the whole PV argument is nonsense. Good luck folks, hopefully I'm wrong, but I think Trump takes the WH and GOP takes the senate.... which would mean liberals aren't connecting with middle Americans, like I said 100 pages ago. 🤔 |
Maybe that was the original intent and worked well for a long time but it’s an outdated system that allows for a minority of the country to have majority rule as seen in 2000 & 2016. Add in things like partisan gerrymandering in the House & the Senate filibuster and we have a very broken system that leads to gridlock.
What does coast vs non-coast have to do with anything? Are people in Wyoming, Kentucky & Nebraska somehow more “average” than people in Virginia, Oregon & Massachusetts simply because their state doesn’t touch the ocean? America is an extremely diverse country, there is no such thing as an average American.
It’s not that Democrats messaging has limited appeal, it’s the fact that they are a diverse coalition of people from many different backgrounds including race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. while the Republican Party are a much more homogeneous group primarily consisting of white Christians. These low population rural states that are over represented in the EC are predominantly white Christians, therefore white Christians have more voting power than the more diverse higher population states.
Democrats messaging appeals to many different types of demographics while Republicans messaging appeals to a more specific demographic that is over represented.
And yes, changing to a popular vote system will change voting behavior and that’s good. I have conservative coworkers who don’t vote because Illinois is a deep blue state and think their vote doesn’t matter. This is true of people all over the country and if we changed to PV then these people will be more likely to participate. It will also end the bullshit of candidates solely focusing on a handful of swing states rather than the nation as a whole.
You think Trump is terrible well guess what? With a PV system, Trump never gets into power and you would have your more moderate Conservative Party that you wish for.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.