And electoral college is a comically bad concept designed to foil the real popular vote, bah!
On that electoral college thing, why did the earlier generations even feel the need to put such rules about election into the constitution rather than a more "ordinary" law in the first place ?
On that electoral college thing, why did the earlier generations even feel the need to put such rules about election into the constitution rather than a more "ordinary" law in the first place ?
It exists so that smaller states also have a say on what happens and don't get walked over in every decision, which was especially a concern when there were much fewer states. Whether it's still a good idea or not is an argument I'm not gonna touch in this comment section.
Well, America had the choice between bad and worst and they chose bad. Nevermind that the election system in the US amuses me greatly... and as such does the "outrage" on social media.
On that electoral college thing, why did the earlier generations even feel the need to put such rules about election into the constitution rather than a more "ordinary" law in the first place ?
At the time, it was feared that the general public was too fickle and uninformed to be entrusted with such an important task as electing a President on their own. Instead, they would vote for electors who were expected to possess the reason and judgment to choose the best person for the job. Only later did this evolve into the winner-takes-all system of pledged electors who blindly vote according to their state's chosen candidate.
Considering the overwhelming influence of the media these days, and the ridiculous sums spent on campaign advertising, perhaps the founding fathers' original intent was for the best.
At the time, it was feared that the general public was too fickle and uninformed to be entrusted with such an important task as electing a President on their own.
I find this ironically hilarious how it still applies to modern day. I,m starting to wonder if the founding fathers have some sort of magic, psychic or even time machine that gave them such amazing foresights. It's amazing really.
I find this ironically hilarious how it still applies to modern day. I,m starting to wonder if the founding fathers have some sort of magic, psychic or even time machine that gave them such amazing foresights. It's amazing really.
"Do I think we should leave? I don’t think we should be given a vote. I see politicians on TV every night telling us that this is a fucking momentous decision that could fucking change Britain forever and blah, blah, blah." "It’s like, okay, why don’t you fucking do what we pay you to do which is run the fucking country and make your fucking mind up?" "What are you asking the people for? 99 per cent of the people are thick as pig shit."
You'd think that by the 21st Century we wouldn't be resorting to calling others "uneducated", "thick", and "dumb fucks" when we don't get the result we want from a democratic process. I can't really blame them but still.
You'd think that by the 21st Century we wouldn't be resorting to calling others "uneducated", "thick", and "dumb fucks" when we don't get the result we want from a democratic process. I can't really blame them but still.
Humanity still has a long way to go I suppose.
Until we all become part robotic beings and rid ourselves of our petty human emotions, humanity will never change.
Yeah, I mean further straining Russia's already barely breathing economy and sacrificing thousands of soldiers, to conquer and hold the souvereign states where absolute majority of populace hates your guts, while gaining literally nothing except shutting off anti-air defense systems - it sounds like a great idea.
Streichkonzert said:
Hopefully, I've finished my atomic shelter then :3.
Don't forget to DMail me an address when you're done, so that I could pay a visit once we start THE GREAT CONQUEST™ :3
Yeah, I mean further straining Russia's already barely breathing economy and sacrificing thousands of soldiers, to conquer and hold the souvereign states where absolute majority of populace hates your guts, while gaining literally nothing except shutting off anti-air defense systems - it sounds like a great idea.
Putin invaded Ukraine to distract from the tanking economy in the first place. If people hating him were going to stop Putin, he wouldn't have invaded Ukraine to start with.
Besides, the world is going backwards, now. Globalism, and the peace it brought, may well die, and send us back to World War 2-era thinking about territorial control over raw materials.
It exists so that smaller states also have a say on what happens and don't get walked over in every decision, which was especially a concern when there were much fewer states. Whether it's still a good idea or not is an argument I'm not gonna touch in this comment section.
It's not about the background of the decision itself. They surely have their reasons based on what they faced in their time and how they envisioned the future.
I'm just surprised (just found out this year) that those rules are being carved directly to the foundation of the country in the constitution rather than a separate law on its own. Oh well, they surely have their own reasons for that.
...in that matter, do they have federal laws that are binding to all the states during the founding era ? Outside the constitution.
At the time, it was feared that the general public was too fickle and uninformed to be entrusted with such an important task as electing a President on their own. Instead, they would vote for electors who were expected to possess the reason and judgment to choose the best person for the job. Only later did this evolve into the winner-takes-all system of pledged electors who blindly vote according to their state's chosen candidate.
Considering the overwhelming influence of the media these days, and the ridiculous sums spent on campaign advertising, perhaps the founding fathers' original intent was for the best.
Maybe maybe not. But thats the system we have now and its unlikely your gonna change it.
I don't think I have ever seen a true rage thread on Danbooru. The power of moe keeps us civil so we don't startle our waifus, even though we are divided by stance or countries.
As far as voting, voting was not considered to be a right originally for a reason. The founding fathers saw all the other uprisings in history and realized that the people are quick to group-think. This is why we are not a democracy but a republic. We have representatives whose entire job is to make decisions and be educated on the government processes. To keep low-information voters or people who were bought out from welfare, to vote you had to pass several requirements on knowledge of law, a fee, and proof of land ownership. Without this degree of self sufficiency and competence, you would vote for whoever promised you the most money/benefits. The electoral college serves as measure to ensure that the election is dependent on the consistency of the general public opinion (since the members are appointed well in advance), not a sudden change just because some disaster or scandal happens. Like when people say "go vote, its your civic duty", this isn't actually the case. If you vote without knowing the basic law or current events, it is better to stay at home.
NWSiaCB said:
Besides, the world is going backwards, now. Globalism, and the peace it brought, may well die, and send us back to World War 2-era thinking about territorial control over raw materials.
Globalism never produced peace though. In fact, it started every single world war and all the proxy wars following it. As sad as it is, like in ecology, politics works around a basis of limited resources. People's desires and consumption are endless. In a globalized society, everyone eats from the same pot so if one goes down, the whole world tanks at once. In nationalism, everyone is responsible for their own sphere of influence, and thus, if one goes down, everyone doesn't suffer for another cultures failures. Actually, if you think about it, it is the same reason why capitalism always succeeds over communism as an economic system. Nature works on competition, not blind cooperation without an eye on personal interests.
It's not about the background of the decision itself. They surely have their reasons based on what they faced in their time and how they envisioned the future.
I'm just surprised (just found out this year) that those rules are being carved directly to the foundation of the country in the constitution rather than a separate law on its own. Oh well, they surely have their own reasons for that.
...in that matter, do they have federal laws that are binding to all the states during the founding era ? Outside the constitution.
The reason for the electoral college is that the founding fathers didn't envision the emergence of something like enduring political parties. (Which is odd, because they existed in England before the United States existed...) George Washington's farewell address (from his presidency) was actually warning against the dangers of political parties.
The general idea was that you would vote for people who represented your interests, rather than having a national consensus upon one person or party, and they all got into a closed room and voted until they could find a compromise candidate. (Not unlike Papal elections by the College of Cardinals.) That said, no small part of the reasoning behind this setup was fear of a demagogue misleading large swaths of the populace, and the belief that the elites needed to have some way of subverting democracy if all else failed... of course, in the current system, the electoral college is directly determined by the parties, themselves, on the express basis of party loyalty and they will essentially never vote against their own candidate.
Also, up until the American Civil War, people thought of themselves as more members of their state than a single nation, and the United States behaved more like the European Union than a unified bod, with most of the power that existed in the federal government being with congress. Due to this difference in the concept of Federalism, there are few federal laws going back to the founding of the nation, and they mostly were concerned with taxes and regulating (then relatively uncommon) interstate commerce the way that, well, the EU works now. I don't know of any federal law that has existed the whole duration of the country, (tax and regulatory law change frequently,) but there may well be some related to the foundation of some very old bureaucratic functions of Congress.
Another thing worth noting is that there had to be a constitutional amendment to even allow people to vote for their own senators. Before that, they were voted by state legislatures. This led to widespread corruption, however, with senatorial seats being given out on the basis of whoever donated the most to the governor's campaign, and the Senate was famously a "millionaire's club."
The reason for how the electoral college vote is split up is a compromise that was made with the founding of the country out of fear from smaller states being overwhelmed by larger states. (At the time, Virginia was the most populous state, and dwarfed states like Rhode Island.) Each state has electoral votes based upon population, plus two. This plus two is rather important, because it means a state like North Dakota has nearly no residents, but is worth 3 electoral votes, while doubling the population would only get it a 33% increase in electoral votes. The fact that Republicans can reliably win the vast stretches of the rural low-population areas filling the middle of the country is why the Democratic Party can consistently win the popular vote in the heavily populated coasts, but still lose the presidency.
Also, the winner-take-all nature of the electoral college is not actually part of the constitution. Some states apportion delegates to the electoral college by house district. (In practice, this means a state can go for the Republicans, but a district representing a city will send one or more delegates for the Democrats, or else a rural area will go for the Republicans in a Democratic state.) This only happens in a couple states, however, as it weakens the overall value of the state on the campaign trail (which means less promises of pork barrel offerings to that state's particular needs) if it is a swing state, while a solidly red or blue state, with a Republican or Democratic state legislature wouldn't want to give away any electors to the other party when they could ensure all the electors for their party. This split apportionment is generally only seen in a state where the state legislature is of a different party than the way a state tends to vote nationally, which means Nebraska and Maine.
Well I've only been on the GameFAQs boards which in retrospect was a terrible idea for numerous reasons. The reactions from every side I've seen there made me realize just how much I've grown tired of pettiness in general. What's weirder is that it seems like people are being energized from all of this, and I'm just here finding it absolutely tiring. And unfortunately for me it's not going to be going away anytime soon. I think this is one big sign that I'm just growing old I guess.
Well I've only been on the GameFAQs boards which in retrospect was a terrible idea for numerous reasons. The reactions from every side I've seen there made me realize just how much I've grown tired of pettiness in general. What's weirder is that it seems like people are being energized from all of this, and I'm just here finding it absolutely tiring. And unfortunately for me it's not going to be going away anytime soon. I think this is one big sign that I'm just growing old I guess.
Well, keep in mind that some people are deathly afraid of this. Since Trump said that he would deport not just undocumented immigrants (if not white) but their US Citizen family members, as well, and since Trump supporters have been sloganeering around "deport all Muslims", there are millions of people who are genuinely afraid they will be rounded up into internment camps in the coming days.
You can feel this is "pettiness" only as long as you don't think it has anything to do with you. For some people, the lives they tried to lead are ending.
Well, keep in mind that some people are deathly afraid of this. Since Trump said that he would deport not just undocumented immigrants (if not white) but their US Citizen family members, as well, and since Trump supporters have been sloganeering around "deport all Muslims", there are millions of people who are genuinely afraid they will be rounded up into internment camps in the coming days.
You can feel this is "pettiness" only as long as you don't think it has anything to do with you. For some people, the lives they tried to lead are ending.
All things still have to be passed into law, and can and likely will be fought by Congress or the Supreme Court (even if all are majority Republican) even if it is an Executive Order. There are limits to what the President of the United States can do by law, and those laws are intentionally very difficult to change, requiring a super-majority in both houses or popular vote all the states. (Adding Amendments to the US Constitution.)
All things still have to be passed into law, and can and likely will be fought by Congress or the Supreme Court (even if all are majority Republican) even if it is an Executive Order. There are limits to what the President of the United States can do by law, and those laws are intentionally very difficult to change, requiring a super-majority in both houses or popular vote all the states. (Adding Amendments to the US Constitution.)
Hypothetically, but then, presidents are SUPPOSED to need the authorization of Congress to wage wars, much less global flying assassination robot death squads, and Gitmo was founded pretty much expressly so that no laws applied for the express purpose of allowing unlawful detainment by the federal government. (Except, ironically, laws that prevented it from closing.) Even before 9/11, Gitmo was used to detain the unwanted somewhere off American shores when they didn't want to give those people the legal rights America usually affords those on American soil.
And even beyond that, there's the illegal actions that may well be taken by the mob that has been inflamed by what they see as justification of anti-immigrant sentiment to attack those of different races.
Laws are only as meaningful as their enforcement. If someone flouts the law, it is a question of who will stop them.
When talking about why there are some extremely fearful people, it shouldn't be hard to see. It frankly speaks to a lack of empathy not to.
Well, keep in mind that some people are deathly afraid of this. Since Trump said that he would deport not just undocumented immigrants (if not white) but their US Citizen family members, as well, and since Trump supporters have been sloganeering around "deport all Muslims", there are millions of people who are genuinely afraid they will be rounded up into internment camps in the coming days.
You can feel this is "pettiness" only as long as you don't think it has anything to do with you. For some people, the lives they tried to lead are ending.
When I meant pettiness I was talking about the circlejerking from Trump supporters celebrating how the left is reacting to this (although I think some of them are indeed overreacting, even if there is legit concern).
It exists so that smaller states also have a say on what happens and don't get walked over in every decision, which was especially a concern when there were much fewer states. Whether it's still a good idea or not is an argument I'm not gonna touch in this comment section.
Considering that, without the Electoral Collage, a candidate would only need to win Texas, California, Florida, and New York to win the white house, keeping it prevents the states with smaller populations stay relevant. Otherwise the US becomes a modern day Holy Roman Empire, where only a few of the member states actually have a say in who rules the nation, and everyone else is Shit Out of Luck.
Remember kids, the Presidential Race in the US isn't one big popular vote. It's a popular vote of 50 popular votes. Ignore that at your own peril.