The electoral college, etc.

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Sunday, January 17. 2021

The electoral college, etc.

As we are often reminded, the USA was founded as a democratic republic, not as a pure democracy. Many states would not have joined the deal without the original electoral college, or without the two Senators per state (which, as we recall, were originally selected by state legislatures and not by popular vote). They were supposed to be wise old owls to keep things rational - like the House of Lords.

But everything political ends up being power plays. It's a game, and a rough one because careers, money, power, and status are involved. Also, ideological passions which tend to be about power anyway. Politics in the US is not pretty and never has been.

What's The True Agenda Behind The Movement To Abolish The Electoral College?

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 10:40 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

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I don't always like Durden, but that's a good article. Those who negotiated the Constitution knew very well the difference between the popular vote and a segmented one and decided on the latter to preserve the power of states. It was an accurate observation that most representative elections in other countries also have a two-step process of some sort, either by winnowing the field with one election or with electing a prime minister via party rather than personally. It is a safety measure.

We complain about mass media playing to the lowest common denominator, because that brings the most eyeballs to the screen or the page. Why do people think that would be any different when it is the popular vote?

#1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2021-01-17 10:51 (Reply)

Agree with your comments NJ.

However, this piece is a waste of time. It's a click bait headline that doesn't answer its lead question. All there is, is post mortems and quotes.

#2 feeblemind on 2021-01-17 11:43 (Reply)

Anyone that wants to see how things would turn out should we abolish the Electoral College, needs only to re-witness the past year of bad-faith changes in the electoral laws in Democratic States. The New Neo has an excellent article on how this was done.

And now, with Trump out of office, watch what the prosecutors in heavily Democratic states do to persecute Trump - like the Southern District of New York, and Washington DC. These are the same people that want your Electoral College leverage abolished. Their style of governing is so effective and popular, that record numbers of people are going anywhere else, almost literally, to get away from them.

If you thought you had to keep a careful eye on your politicians last year, your scrutiny should be re-doubled this year. Republican politicians, almost to the individual, cannot be trusted to conserve anything.

#3 Aggie on 2021-01-17 11:53 (Reply)

I feel like this is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Biden's administration could not be worse for our Republic, for Democracy, for the constitution if it had been hand selected by China (which it may have been). It is designed to destroy us. This is not like past elections where the do nothing president didn't do much and certainly didn't do much to harm Americans. This presidency is intended to harm Americans. To take your jobs and replace you with cheap labor, To destroy the economy and cause massive bankruptcies. To emasculate the military so that when the time is right China will be able to be in a superior position and take us without firing a shot. It's over, in Kamala's first 100 days she will have Joe use his pen and phone to destroy you and your rights. Why the 30,000 national guard in DC? Not for the inauguration but to protect them once the presidential decrees are made that take your rights, take your guns and take your vote. Good luck turning this around.

#4 IdahoBob on 2021-01-17 11:59 (Reply)

The issue he brushes past is that the new political machines in the megacities (all run by Dems, btw) could (and I am sure do) stuff the ballot boxes for their chosen candidates at will. This would ensure Dem candidates winning forever if we abolish the Electoral College.

Nazis wanted to:
A) stay in power forever by destroying their opposition.
B) persecute and even murder those they saw as enemies or inferior.
C) disarm their opponents.
D) control all information by shutting down their opposition's ability to reach the masses. They also did it with massive propaganda campaigns.
E) use political violence to reach their goals.

While I agree that Nazis were (and are) evil, I don't think that the Republican party has acted like Nazis at all. While you could argue that storming the capital is category E, it hasn't been part of the party's goals at all. And I don't think that the average Trump voter supports it in any way.

Anyone with eyes can see that the mainstream media has praised rioters in places like Portland and far overblown the incident at the capital.

I am more certain every day that this country will be run by Nazis soon. And when those left wingers get control, I am sure that they will come for me and those like me. When they do it, I am confident that they will sleep well, feeling like they have made the world a better place by re-educating or killing deplorables like me. I predict that their crimes will make Hitler's pale by comparison.

#5 Dangerous Dean on 2021-01-17 12:05 (Reply)

the 17th removed power from the states that needs to still be there. senators are their own now, instead of being agents of the state legislatures. part of Wilson's plan to bring Progressivism

#6 talgus on 2021-01-17 12:06 (Reply)

Pure democracy is best described as mob rule.

#7 TheCaptain on 2021-01-17 12:46 (Reply)

While the EC is an important part of the federal structure of our government (I agree with talgus that the 17th Amendment should be repealed) I would caution against assuming that one can make an accurate prediction of the results of a national popular vote based on projections from our current system. The entire calculus of campaigning, GOTV efforts, and even incentives for individual voters would be entirely different without the filtering effect of the Electoral College. A Republican in California has little reason to vote at all under their current system but if offered the chance that their vote would register in the selection of the President might make the choice to fill out a ballot. There's some indications both from the 2016 and 2020 elections that Democrat GOTV efforts for Hillary and Biden might have resulted in down-ballot losses for Democrat candidates. I'd prefer us to stick with the current system but I'm not so sure that the people who want it abolished for tactical benefit are really thinking through all the practical ramifications.

#8 Christopher B on 2021-01-17 13:41 (Reply)

The answer to the question as to what's the agenda behind getting rid of the Electoral College is that the Democrats see it as giving them a short-term advantage and that's all they care about. They'll happily switch positions once it's to their advantage to do so.

Look at the issue of immigration - once Democrats were anti-immigrant when they thought immigrants took jobs from working-class Americans and the largely Catholic Hispanic immigrants were anti-abortion. Now that they've figured out that illegal immigrants are pro-Democrat, they're all for it.

#8.1 Jerryskids on 2021-01-17 16:24 (Reply)

Looking at the video and pictures out of DC lately I do believe that the stolen election/coup has been turned into an armed coup. One wonders if this is what the Democrats wanted all along???

I will be searching the pictures online after the 20th for the best to frame and hang on my wall titled America's Leftist's Armed Coup. I am personally ashamed that it will of course have our own beloved military in it but that is what Pelosi has wrought.

#9 Saul on 2021-01-17 18:56 (Reply)

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Sunday, January 17. 2021

The electoral college, etc.