This take can sound reasonable at first but it’s not the right way to look at it.
51% deciding the election is better than as low as 25% or so deciding in the system we have now. I mean, look at the candidates, they’re only visiting a few swing states and ignoring the rest. The issue you’re worried about is already happening.
You know what, you’re right. It is much better for all of us if a small group decides things for the rest of us. We really should just get rid of voting altogether to streamline government.
Wouldn’t this allow like three states to dictate the other 47?
No, that’s both not mathematically possible and big states aren’t uniform. And all your other statements don’t in any way address how the current system achieves any of those goals. There’s no perfect voting system, but we know our voting system is very bad. Right now most voters are completely irrelevant to a presidential campaign. Not 49%, 80%. If you’re not in a swing state, it doesn’t matter to the campaign what your issues are.
But the President doesn’t dictate much of anything (as much as the media salivates at the idea), our representatives in Congress do. The President appoints Judges and can veto bills.
Our country is built on representation of districts and states, so voting for President is also built around representation of districts and states. Not the ideas of the majority. That is reserved for districts and states. The country is physically huge and all 333 million of us don’t live in similar situations economically, environmentally, ethnically, culturally, etc. So we vote based on our local circumstances and (at that level) it is a majority rule. That’s why you can have some states that are much more socialist than others. Or some states that are much more conservative than others. And we as individuals have the freedom and responsibility to make change we would like to see at that level, or we have the freedom of movement between those areas.
I didn’t think I would need to do a basic civics lesson today.
Unlike Norway, we don’t have a parliamentary system, so there’s no multi-party viability, only first-past-the-post which promotes a 2-party system. We do have state based representation in the Senate, which allows equal representation by state, and district level representation in the House. So ultimately any legislation has to go through both those to pass, removing any “tyranny” those of us who live in populous areas might have on the rest of the country.
The current system allows for less than a 50% majority to decide the president (as what happened in 2016). The current system is worse than your concerns about a simple majority victor.
The three biggest states do account for a lot of votes (more than a quarter of the votes cast in 2020 came from CA, TX, or FL). However, your point goes against reality - TX and FL are right-leaning purple states whereas CA is a strongly blue state. They don’t cancel each other out, but they alone definitely WOULD NOT decide the election nor “dictate the other 47”.
“neglect 49% of the active voters and groom the 51%” - You make things sound so static. About 36% of voters are moderate voters and will shift. You can’t just assume that your 51% base will stay same and can be groomed. And that’s not even considering that people are dying and becoming 18+ years old everyday. Politicians in a simple majority election would have to appease the general public. They no longer could simply focus on making the swing states alone happy (though, on the flip side, I’m sure they would emphasize visiting larger population states).
Wouldn’t this allow like three states to dictate the other 47?
Sure popular vote sounds nice. But is it really practical if the goal is to raise the quality of life for everyone?
A popular vote would allow the leading majority to neglect 49% of the active voters and groom the 51%. It’s the majority’s tyranny.
Where the fuck have you been living for the past 24 years, in which we had TWO shitcunts rule by tyranny of the minority?
This take can sound reasonable at first but it’s not the right way to look at it.
51% deciding the election is better than as low as 25% or so deciding in the system we have now. I mean, look at the candidates, they’re only visiting a few swing states and ignoring the rest. The issue you’re worried about is already happening.
You know what, you’re right. It is much better for all of us if a small group decides things for the rest of us. We really should just get rid of voting altogether to streamline government.
No that’s how it is now. Like 3 to 5 States decide the election. Without the Electoral College no States would decide the election, just the voters.
No, that’s both not mathematically possible and big states aren’t uniform. And all your other statements don’t in any way address how the current system achieves any of those goals. There’s no perfect voting system, but we know our voting system is very bad. Right now most voters are completely irrelevant to a presidential campaign. Not 49%, 80%. If you’re not in a swing state, it doesn’t matter to the campaign what your issues are.
But the President doesn’t dictate much of anything (as much as the media salivates at the idea), our representatives in Congress do. The President appoints Judges and can veto bills.
Our country is built on representation of districts and states, so voting for President is also built around representation of districts and states. Not the ideas of the majority. That is reserved for districts and states. The country is physically huge and all 333 million of us don’t live in similar situations economically, environmentally, ethnically, culturally, etc. So we vote based on our local circumstances and (at that level) it is a majority rule. That’s why you can have some states that are much more socialist than others. Or some states that are much more conservative than others. And we as individuals have the freedom and responsibility to make change we would like to see at that level, or we have the freedom of movement between those areas.
I didn’t think I would need to do a basic civics lesson today.
Unlike Norway, we don’t have a parliamentary system, so there’s no multi-party viability, only first-past-the-post which promotes a 2-party system. We do have state based representation in the Senate, which allows equal representation by state, and district level representation in the House. So ultimately any legislation has to go through both those to pass, removing any “tyranny” those of us who live in populous areas might have on the rest of the country.
On top of what everyone else has said:
Changing the electoral college impacts the presidential election, the one who’s supposed to represent everyone
You still have the other branches and local governments, the small states don’t get magically fucked by this and it’s weird people think they do