• Kcap@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    I remember being in 3rd grade and learning about the electoral college and thinking, “that’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard of”. Still true to this day.

    • xenoclast@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Learning that it was so rich white people in the south could substitute the votes of newly freed black slaves with theirs is what got me.

      All this shit is because they were too fucking nice to the slavers.

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Okay guys stop up voting this! Simply let me assure you that I will upvote for you!

      If you upvote this comment to 100, I will upvote the way you want me to upvote.

      Actually I’ll do you better! Look. I know these guys who can upvote. If you upvote my comment past 100, I’ll have them vote for you just the way you telepathically have told me to upvote by up voting for me…what? Why would you even need to know me or my friend who hasn’t even talked to you directly? That’s crazy talk! I’m an upvoter, I upvote. They. My friends who can upvote are true upvoters too. Soon you won’t even need to upvote at all! You can just go read all the shit we Upvoted for you! Yey! We call our selves the “Upvotlectoral” college. We learn algebra in this college too, but we never graduate…at least you don’t know if we have graduated or not.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Then how do you stop urban concerns from completely trouncing rural concerns? Voters from rural areas have valid concerns which are largely opposite of urban voters. If you get rid of electoral college, candidates will campaign in major cities and that’s it. Nobody else will matter.

      For anyone downvoting me- you should know I’m a liberal-libertarian registered Democrat from Connecticut, who’s very much against Trump and most of the BS today’s GOP is peddling. I just don’t think disenfranchising anyone who doesn’t live in a city is the answer.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Not the previous commenter, but I’m pretty certain that the, apparently fictional book, that Leave Burton showed on either The Daily Show, or Last Week Tonight, entitled It’s all Because of Racism, would cover what the EC’s actual purpose is. Though in this particular case it may be fairer to say classism.

      • GeneralVincent@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        So the people in cities should just be worth less when they vote? It’s a federal vote for a federal office, everyone in the country should count the same.

        The individual states already have their own powers which make sure the federal government doesn’t make decisions that are bad for those states. And each county and town have their own governments that pass local laws.

        I’ve also heard this argument so many times but I haven’t heard any actual examples.

      • orrk@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        and what has that gotten us? rural communities are subsidized out the wazoo as the urban centers across America are strangled and starved. as the more powerful minority of people is catered too

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 months ago

          Which would be replaced with “Can the Democrat win California by a large enough margin?”

          Which was literally the case when people complain about Clinton winning the popular vote in 2016 - across the 49 states that aren’t California more people voted for Trump, but she won California by such a large margin that she won the popular vote because of California alone. Same thing in 2000, where Gore’s popular vote lead was smaller than his margin in CA.

          • Stern@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 months ago

            Which would be replaced with “Can the Democrat win California by a large enough margin?”

            If it’s going to be fucked either way I’d rather at least have it be fucked in a way where every vote counts the same rather then a Wyoming vote being worth like 4 times a California vote owing to the house of representatives population being limited which means Californians aren’t being properly represented in the house.

            • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              2 months ago

              FYI Hillary did not win the popular vote just because of California

              Yes, she did. That there are other combinations of states that she won that combine to have a similar total margin doesn’t change that her national margin was smaller than her margin in California. And that’s the crux of the argument Snopes makes - she won the national popular vote by 2,833,220 and sure she won California by 4,269,978 votes but there are other states she won that if added together had a combined margin in her favor of more than 2,833,220 votes and also just her California votes alone wouldn’t be enough to exceed Trump’s vote count nationwide so it doesn’t count.

              Which is…kinda ridiculous? It’s a big stretch for a frankly kinda dumb claim.

              • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                2 months ago

                Also, what is wrong with only winning California, anyway? California represents the broad spectrum of a modern America and it has its rural areas as well. It is easy to argue that it is our most important state, too.

                What people in California want should matter even if it overrides smaller red states - since they will likely only hold us back anyway.