Was Lincoln gay?… wow, one politely inquires into a single queer topic on the internet and is suddenly mired in a web of accusations that just about every 1 in 10 important male historical figures was gay. Cool.
by krisis
politics
By far, this is my favourite ballot tampering story so far. Honestly, i think we’re all already sick of the whole election BS, because it’s turned into some more of the same exhausting partisan politics. Personally, i just think the situation in Florida seems hugely unlawful and i want to see it resolved, especially because it obviously has a very direct bearing on who becomes our next president. But, really, this is just the direction our country seems to be sliding towards. Was the vote so close because the candidates are nearly the same, or because they truly polarized the nation? I think it’s a bit of both… with Bush and Gore being similar enough that the unconcerned just vote partisan, while the more savvy use their own personal set of litmus tests to figure out which candidate they should vote for.
There is an entirely obvious reason that the electoral college system is in effect in America, and that is to prevent what my high school government teacher lovingly referred to as Mobocracy.
All Gore won California by a very healthy margin at last count, but he still received the same 54 electoral votes that the state is always worth. He’d win those same votes if he had between Bush 10 to 1. Or, just by ten (well, as in Florida’s case, this might not be true…). In a strictly popular majority vote system, what would happen if suddenly the mid-west had 90% voter turnout? Or, if all of New York and Texas voted for one candidate? These are extreme examples, but they serve to very handily exemplify why a straight popular vote wouldn’t work out entirely well for America.
Since Congress is split between the Senate and the House in order to provide just such a balance to the legislature of the country, there ought to be a similar way to place a check on the highly unstable electoral system when a race is as close as this one has been. Perhaps the electoral votes only should add up to a total of 435, with actual Senators casting the last 100? Or, perhaps the last 100% could be a proportional representation of the popular vote itself.
The whole point of the college is to avoid various forms of mobocracy, and that i think anyone could agree with. It’s just the implementation that’s off…
Rather than providing political coverage for you, i refer you to riotHERO, who is speaking for me by proxy… except that Nader stuff. Just ignore that…
I honestly think i could end a friendship over the fact that one of my friends would vote for Bush. Matt refuses to vote – i can’t decide if i hate him more or less because of it.