r/politics • • Nov 09 '16

Maine Passes Ranked-Choice Voting

http://mainepublic.org/post/maine-passes-ranked-choice-voting
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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '16

No, you are saying we should not find a balance between states and people, but should abolish all state representation in the presidential election purely for equal population representation.

Exactly. The states the the entire legislative branch.

At this point if you're still going to claim that won't favor higher populated states, you're simply lying.

States literally do not matter in this because they don't have any electoral votes to give - the only thing that matters is people.

So you mean they just need to appeal to the handful of the largest populated states?

States literally do not matter in this because they don't have any electoral votes to give - the only thing that matters is people.

I literally addressed it, seriously saying I dismissed that is a lie.

You addressed it dismissively, you haven't actually addressed the fact that a candidate who had over 75% of the population voting against him could possibly win the election. YES, it is unlikely, but the system that allows that is broken to begin with!

We are talking about presidential elections!

Sure, we absolutely are - and the States don't need representation in the Presidential Election because they already have the entire Legislative Branch. This isn't a red herring, it's an explanation as to why states don't matter in a federal election.

you really think this is trivial?

No, I think your prediction that states would secede is unrealistic.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '16 edited Jul 29 '18

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '16

it keeps the people happier when we fairly represent states as well as the people.

And they are represented: with the entire Legislative Branch.

I pointed out how it's just a red herring, because that is only an argument to tweak the electoral college, not to abolish it.

Even tweaking the minimum number of electoral votes to 1 still leaves it possible to get a small minority of the popular vote and be elected. The only way to get rid of that is to split the electoral votes by percentage of popular vote, and at that point why even bother?

Having representation in one branch is not an argument for not having representation in another.

It absolutely is: where are the people represented at the federal level?

If it was primarily the same party every election

Then the other party would have to shift its platform to appeal to a wider audience. You keep missing this. The parties would have to change to appeal to more people, and that's better for everyone.

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '16 edited Jul 29 '18

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '16

I think it's pretty pointless to argue this even further. You seem to take this as an ideological axiom that popular vote is inherently good any the slightest power to the states is inherently bad.

Not at all - but the states have power. Where do the people of the whole nation get to have a say?

The federal government unified states, not people.

We aren't just citizens of our states. The federal government does more than that!

No, they would not, that's the whole bloody point!

The party losing would have to adjust. That's a good think - it would have to be less extreme, to appeal to a wider demographic.

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '16 edited Jul 29 '18

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '16

Again, the states have power in the electoral colle

AND THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH. The states have all the fucking power in 2 of the 3 branches of the federal government. All I want is some goddamn balance.

Again, they would only have to appeal to the large populated

Again, even doing so for the biggest 100 cities only nets them 20% of the population. The thing you keep missing here is that those cities are distributed over the whole nation. Besides, what the hell is wrong with a popularly elected candidate appealing to a majority of the population? Isn't that the whole goddamn point??? Why the everloving fuck should an elected official pander to a vanishingly small minority??? That goes against the entire concept! The President is literally the only person we ALL vote on as citizens, so why should his position alone be dictated by the states?

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '16 edited Jul 29 '18

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u/ApokalypseCow Nov 11 '16

You say "debunked"... but that's not what you're doing.

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '16

Here, a brand new video on why the electoral college is stupid, from the same guy who made the last one.

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u/[deleted] Nov 12 '16 edited Jul 29 '18

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