cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17199847

@Snowden

The DNC is the only reason you’re not currently enjoying a second-term Sanders and a sane Supreme Court.

  • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    The Electoral College is the root of a fuckton of problems.

    If you can become president without winning the popular vote, it’s a big fucking problem.

    It gives a disproportionate weight to small states, where their vote is worth more than bigger states.

    • batmaniam@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      There’s definitely issues with the EC, but you’re bringing up a feature not a bug.

      The executive branch wasn’t supposed to be an extension of the legislative. The office of the president wasn’t supposed to be a “super duper senator”. The blame for where we’re at is entirely in a defunct congress. With a presidential office that is genuinely executing, not the forefront of, legislation, the checks and balances in congress start to make a lot more sense.

      And regardless of the way it’s supposed to be, we’ve got to work with what we’ve got, I get that. But the US is huge and wildly different. I’m not particularly rural, but took a friend of mine born and raised in NYC out to a friends cabin once. Offered to give em a ride on the ATV. They were excited, I grabbed my jacket, and came out to them sitting on the ride-on lawnmower, all ready to go. To flip it around, I have very little business giving an opinion on what minimum wage in a major metro should be (although after a recent visit to sanfran my guess is about $1,000/hr…).

      My point being, an over correction the EC will 1) see a ton of opposition that makes it unfeasible, and 2) ultimately be fairly destructive. The challenges in different parts of this country are worlds apart, and we do a TERRIBLE job understanding one another, mostly by design because it helps reelection. Threatening the EC without a replacement that takes the concerns of otherwise under-represented folks into consideration will feed into this partisan crap more that it has already, entrench identity politics further, and just accelerate things.

      I have no solution for this.

      • kamenoko@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Other countries have solutions for the issue. The Constitution can be amended, it’s going to take a lot of work.

        • batmaniam@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Oh I don’t disagree, it can be done and is clearly an issue, I just think we have to be careful on how. The EU probably has good framework given how different it’s members are