RE: Lets get rid of primary elections when electing our president
June 29, 2018 at 10:33 am
(This post was last modified: June 29, 2018 at 10:33 am by Clueless Morgan.)
... That doesn't explain anything, it just shows what we already know: most counties in the US aren't 100% red or 100% blue but somewhere in the middle.
Among the actual reasons we have an electoral college and not a direct democracy are:
- to provide a constitutional limitation on direct democracy whereby "factions" of citizen could grow large enough that they could “sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.” (James Madison) which is where we get the idea of the "tyranny of the majority."
- to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” (Alexander Hamilton) (A lot of good this one did)
- because the founders didn't trust that the population of a geographically large country would be able to be well enough informed about presidential candidates to make intelligent decisions when casting their votes
- because a direct democracy would not be acceptable to the slave-owning south where the population of eligible voters was much less than in the north. Having an electoral college meant that they could enact the 3/5th rule for southern slaves and give the south an electoral college boost and enhancing their power in the vote. Ah, racism rears it ugly head again.
Among the actual reasons we have an electoral college and not a direct democracy are:
- to provide a constitutional limitation on direct democracy whereby "factions" of citizen could grow large enough that they could “sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.” (James Madison) which is where we get the idea of the "tyranny of the majority."
- to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” (Alexander Hamilton) (A lot of good this one did)
- because the founders didn't trust that the population of a geographically large country would be able to be well enough informed about presidential candidates to make intelligent decisions when casting their votes
- because a direct democracy would not be acceptable to the slave-owning south where the population of eligible voters was much less than in the north. Having an electoral college meant that they could enact the 3/5th rule for southern slaves and give the south an electoral college boost and enhancing their power in the vote. Ah, racism rears it ugly head again.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
