A message from "Betty"

[jim-ratliff]

The electoral college should be removed by Constitutional amendment and a simple majority vote should prevail.  How do you feel when all the votes from your state's electoral college go to one candidate or the other based on the majority vote in your state?

I think the electoral college should stay -- it provides a certain balance between populous eastern states and the less populous western states in a way consistent with the Constitution; and I guess the way it handles the District of Columbia is OK.
But I agree that the "winner take all" approach to each states electoral votes should be done away with, as should the electors.  If Virginia votes 49%-48%-3% for the D-R-I candidates, then Virginia's Electoral College votes should be divvied up 6.37, 6.24, 0.39 (and, as I mentioned, I don't believe that the votes should be selecting Elector's; they should have gone the way of the dinosaur).

Former Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming defends the Electoral College system for protecting small states in elections, which otherwise might be overrun by big city campaigning: "Once you get rid of the Electoral College, the election will be conducted in New York and San Francisco."

HA, as a Colorado resident you should be in favor of the electoral college approach (if not it's  winner take all execution).

[epic]

My problem with the electoral college is the "winner" takes all aspect of it in all but 2 states. We have this idea that it is red states and blue states, but when you look at the electoral map by counties, wow, it seems like a lot of people are getting the shaft.

[jbotti]

4 states and 15 counties are deciding virually every presedential election. That is not what was intended when they set up the electoral college!!

[byronm]

My goodness....yet another contentous political season...I am more wore out than I was when I tried to snowboard for the first time after half a day on two boards.
However, I now know who I am "supposed" to be....apparently America's demographics mirror one of three ids,  Media opinions and personalities centralized in NY...Entertainment(ers) in CA...or Politics(ians) in DC.....Now that I understand this existential epiphany, I am much more at ease and of course look forward to future exercises in sane, reasonable and relevent political discourse.....

[bushwacka]

After I proposed the same line of thinking, a friend of mine made an interesing argument that a vote for either dem or repub is a vote for what he called the 'corporatrocity', which he claimed was the only way (other than not voting) to throw away a vote. This meme has been bouncing around in this small brain for the last couple of weeks.

its the National Party and its being supporter by statist in herds who think we are crazy for being different.

If the libertarian were good for corporate interest they would be getting funding from them.

[jim-ratliff]

.....Now that I understand this existential epiphany, I am much more at ease and of course look forward to future exercises in sane, reasonable and relevent political discourse.....

I would like to point out for Byron's sake that I started this as neither 'sane' nor 'reasonable' nor 'relevant'. I received it in an email and found it most humorous. I added little bit of a troll for Svend, expecting he would enlighten us with guidance on being loyal subjects but he seems not to have risen to the bait. I was quite surprised how quickly it removed itself from the realm of humor.

To:       The Citizens of the United States of America
From:    Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of your United States and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately (as will likely be necessary, you can look up the word 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary).

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and ....

Her Sovereign Majesty suggests that you look to your neighbors to the north for guidance in how to appropriately behave as Royal Subjects, eh?

[meput]

All you need to know about politics is the derivation of the word "politics".

Poli (poly) meaning "many".

Tics (ticks) - blood sucking insects!

[byronm]

LOL....Jim...I wasn't referring to "this" discourse.....I was referring to this political season as a whole. In years past I considered myself a moderately informed voter...but this year decided (unwittingly) to follow this election very close, research the issues, ponder them, make, informed decisions based on "logic" in the world according to byron anyway.
BIG mistake....the jist of my comment was that I felt better knowing less....less pigeon holed...certainly more optimistic about outcomes. Fact is...this year wore me out and demonstrated how manipulated we all are by messaging, parsed words, faux claims and "perhaps" a less than sterile election process?  In fact, it's hard not to look on the process without some semblance of humor...perhaps the most critical medicinal element to treat the wounds....

[jim-ratliff]

All you need to know about politics is the derivation of the word "politics".

Poli (poly) meaning "many".

Tics (ticks) - blood sucking insects!

+1   ROTFLMAO  (where's that icon, Lynn?)

[meput]

[max_501]

[Svend]

I should know better than to go out of town for a week, and leave you lot unsupervised.  I just read this whole thread, and am loving it. 

I added little bit of a troll for Svend, expecting he would enlighten us with guidance on being loyal subjects but he seems not to have risen to the bait.

Sorry Jim...very lax of me for not attending.  But I must enter this discussion with a correction:  we Canadians are no longer loyal subjects of the crown.  We have been without a monarch since 1982 when we repatriated our Constitution, an Act signed by Betty herself.  A very proud moment for our country, I must say.  We have been redefiining our national identity ever since, and getting more patriotic with every year.

As for the recent election in the US, us Canadians were watching with rapt attention to every thrust and parry over the past months.....years, actually.  Fascinating, in a strange kind of way.  A bit like the gapers at a car crash on the freeway -- drawn to the carnage in a morbid sense, but damn glad it's not us.  And good lord, it takes forever for you guys to run election campaigns. Take a lesson from Canada, please, and put us all out of our misery a tad more swiftly:  six weeks and it's over and done with up here, and we get on with running the kitchen already. 

But I digress....   Given the partisan discourse and rancour in your country since 2008, I could certainly understand how Jim would find a tinge of temptation the thought of a stable, calm period of rule by a lovely old gal like Lizzy.  Imagine the P & Q! No more childish bickering; actual governance and progress.  Bliss! She might even bring in a universal national health service in the British model.  Charming, James old chap.... 

But beware! All is not roses.  Canada got so fed up with having to march off to London, hat in hand, every time we wanted to enact a major piece of nation-changing legislation (constitutional reforms, and that sort of stuff) and ask HRH if please would she mind signing off on it.  Americans, being the independent-minded sort, would last, oh, maybe a year or two, and then you'd want that ole constitution back home again, fer sure.  Trouble is, you might get one or two states that don't like the terms of repatriation, and hold the rest of the country to ransom.  This is what happened in Canada when the frenchies in Quebec, petulant and manipulating, refused to sign unless they had major concessions which would have led to their eventual independent statehood.  The rest of Canada (English) told them to go to hell, and to this day Quebec is the only province that is not a signatory to our Constitution.  So Jim:  don't do it, my friend!!!  Don't say I didn't warn you....

That's my history lesson for today...  Back to the many ticks in the world.  There sure are a lot of them, aren't there.  Perhaps we should legalize DDT again?