Rigging against the voters
Wednesday - 02Nov2016 Filed in: Politics
So, what happens when you hold an election and both major candidates are hated?
More than any other year, 2016 is when more Americans will vote against someone rather than for someone.
CGP Grey and others tell us that it is the inevitable result of first past the post voting. Eventually there are only two major parties, neither party has to pay attention to most of the voters.
But that is only part of the problem.
There is the electoral college. We’ve long since outgrown this system. It needs to be abolished.
Pages and pages and pages have been written about why the electoral college doesn’t work well. I’m not going to rehash that here.
Here’s the thing. You vote for President. Your vote counts.
Except when it doesn’t.
You don’t actually vote for President. You vote for electors who may or may not vote for your choice.
The electors nominally represent part of your state. Which may or may not be tied to Congressional districts.
The key part of the problem is that the electors tend to be from cities. The city may or may not have the majority of population in that area. Even if the city does have most of the population, votes go uncounted because the electors usually go by the majority.
If you noticed that there are a lot of “may or may nots” there, you’ve see the problem.
Your vote may or may not count.
This is one case where I do think popular democracy is a really good idea.
It’s the only way to make your vote count.
Oh, my choice for 2016?
None Of The Above.
When the choice is to have your right hand cut off or your left foot burned off, the best choice is to walk away.
So there are the problems.
First past the post voting inevitably leads to only two major parties and most people voting AGAINST someone instead of FOR someone.
The major parties are more interested in preserving power among themselves instead of acting in the voters’ interest. These parties exist to PREVENT voters from choosing is allowed to run.
The electoral college concentrates power in the cities instead of power among the voters.
The 2016 election is messed up no matter what happens next.
What will we do in four years?
More than any other year, 2016 is when more Americans will vote against someone rather than for someone.
CGP Grey and others tell us that it is the inevitable result of first past the post voting. Eventually there are only two major parties, neither party has to pay attention to most of the voters.
But that is only part of the problem.
There is the electoral college. We’ve long since outgrown this system. It needs to be abolished.
Pages and pages and pages have been written about why the electoral college doesn’t work well. I’m not going to rehash that here.
Here’s the thing. You vote for President. Your vote counts.
Except when it doesn’t.
You don’t actually vote for President. You vote for electors who may or may not vote for your choice.
The electors nominally represent part of your state. Which may or may not be tied to Congressional districts.
The key part of the problem is that the electors tend to be from cities. The city may or may not have the majority of population in that area. Even if the city does have most of the population, votes go uncounted because the electors usually go by the majority.
If you noticed that there are a lot of “may or may nots” there, you’ve see the problem.
Your vote may or may not count.
This is one case where I do think popular democracy is a really good idea.
It’s the only way to make your vote count.
Oh, my choice for 2016?
None Of The Above.
When the choice is to have your right hand cut off or your left foot burned off, the best choice is to walk away.
So there are the problems.
First past the post voting inevitably leads to only two major parties and most people voting AGAINST someone instead of FOR someone.
The major parties are more interested in preserving power among themselves instead of acting in the voters’ interest. These parties exist to PREVENT voters from choosing is allowed to run.
The electoral college concentrates power in the cities instead of power among the voters.
The 2016 election is messed up no matter what happens next.
What will we do in four years?
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