I was watching the end of a TV comedy and the put up the face of someone wh o looked a lot like Pence and it hit me, Pence has been setting us up all t his time. He has no interest in politics. He's doing this so he has lots of material for his standup comedy routine! He's going to take it on the r oad!!!
Picture all the COVID jokes, all the Trump one liners.... "Take the Presid ent, PLEASE!"
Tell me I'm wrong...
-- Rick C. - Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging - Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
Nah he's solid guy who loses to some other racist blabbermouth celebrity in the 2024 republican primaries-material.
e who looked a lot like Pence and it hit me, Pence has been setting us up a ll this time. He has no interest in politics. He's doing this so he has lot s of material for his standup comedy routine! He's going to take it on the road!!!
sident, PLEASE!"
Pense won't lose to Trump in the Republican primary, he'll lose to the enti re field. Trump may or may not run in 2024. But I'm willing to give 2:1 o dds he won't run. He's going to have someone write his memoirs and play go lf for four years and won't be in any shape to run again. It's not like he could get Burgess Meredith to help him train.
Who knows? Trump is the sort of guy who might just talk himself into wanti ng to run, but do you really think the RNC wants him? Do you think they wi ll stand a better chance with him running than letting someone else run?
Keep in mind the electoral college won't be around anymore for Trump to tar get a few key states. A Presidency will have to be won by actually getting a majority vote.
-- Rick C. + Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging + Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
It's worth noting that he wasn't in any shape to run in 2016 or 2020 either. That didn't stop him.
As things stand at the moment, I think there is a good chance that he /will/ stand again in 2024 (after having his memoirs written and played golf a lot). But I really hope that the Republican party learns a bit and grows up a bit before then, and that when Trump stands in the primaries, he gets eliminated early. It would be good for them to show that they can be taken seriously again - politics in the USA is bad enough with two parties, but when there is only one rational party, as there is now, it doesn't really count as a working democracy.
But as you say, who knows? About the only thing we can be sure about, is Trump will not retire quietly - nor will his cultists.
Do you really think the electoral college will be gone by the 2024 elections? I would be very surprised to see that. I fully agree with you that it /should/ be eliminated, but I am less convinced that there is enough political will, courage and power to make it happen in that timeframe.
This whole thing would be great entertainment for those of us on the outside, if it didn't have such repercussions for the rest of the world.
Yes, at this point the benefits of the electoral college have been clearly shown to consist of preventing presidential candidates from campaigning in states other than the few key battleground states and the states with early primaries. That's another game that should be eliminated, having early pr imaries to attract attention to your state. Presidential elections should be about the candidates, not about any individual states.
I am seeing many mentions of how badly the election is distorted by the ele ctoral college. This election was ALL about the electoral college and so l ittle about the candidates other than the rabid rumors about Biden and the white hot focus on the absurdities of the President. What were the real is sues? 2016 was about Mexico offering to pay for the border wall. This ele ction was about... I don't know what it was about. I found it too painful to pay attention to. I'll probably wait for the movie to come out. Call it the "Last Gasp of the Electoral College". Nah, not catchy enough. How about "Gone With the Windbag"?
-- Rick C. -- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging -- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
Certainly. I think we agree on most aspects about how presidential elections /should/ be held. There's no doubt that he electoral college nonsense should be dropped. The question is whether it is realistic to expect that it will be changed, and if so what the time-scale would be for that.
A constitutional amendment is a glacial prospect, and intentionally so.
Nor will the smaller states ever agree to being disenfranchised by the largeset states. This was a big reason for having an Electorial College. Another reason was that it took a month to travel from the far reaches to Philadelphia (the capital back then).
Joe Gwinn
Disenfranchisement of the smaller states is a big reason to get rid of the electoral college. Small states only have a say if the election is really, really tight. In fact, the big and the middle size states only have a say in the election if they are battle ground states where campaigning can tip the scale. If your populous votes a solid 40/60 split and are not likely to be swayed, no campaigning for you regardless of the size.
Picking a President isn't about states and should not be. It's about voter s and giving every one of them an equal say in the matter. I don't get why people keep dragging superfluous nonsense into the matter.
-- Rick C. -+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging -+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
Yes (and it is good that it is slow).
The electoral college perhaps made some sense at the time it was invented - but it is certainly inappropriate now. That's the whole point - a constitution (for any country) needs to change with the times.
And you do have a system that is very disproportionate in the power it gives to small (in population) states. Changing that is not easy.
Then there is the chance he is in jail by then, or in Russia.
-- This is the first day of the end of your life. It may not kill you, but it does make your weaker. If you can't beat them, too bad. albert@spe&ar&c.xs4all.nl &=n http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst
That's why the Constitution provides an amendment process.
Yes, it isn't easy.
While it no longer takes a month to get to the Capital, smaller states are still profoundly uninterested in going from some power to zero power.
And the fact that their power is disproportionate to their relative population is a necessary feature, not a bug.
Joe
A feature, yes. Necessary, no. It certainly IS a bug. What matters, is whether the bug bothers enough folk to overtake the (irrational) feeling that it is necessary.
An alternative to the US political polarization that has a president asking a governor to overturn an election is... a real necessity, IMHO.
e o e
It is a bug, but you seem to be confused about the power that small states have in a Presidential election, which is nearly zero.
In this election the heavyweights were not New Hampshire or Delaware. They were the states on the edge of 50/50, that could be tipped the most easily . It doesn't matter what size you are, it is how tipsy the balance. A lar ge boulder laying flat on the ground gets no attention from either party. But a skinny obelisk, ready to be tipped over gets constant shoves from bot h sides no matter how short or tall.
To give you an idea of what it would be like without the electoral college, there was concern that the election might come down to a single electoral vote from one of the two states who apportion their votes. So those states became important again!
Any state that thinks it has power because two of its three electoral votes are from Senators and so not the number of voters, is living a fantasy. When it comes to the electoral college it's all about tipping the scales of each state. If you aren't close to tipping, you get ignored.
With a popular vote the voters of each and every state have the same power as everyone else, 1 person, 1 vote, the way it should be.
How many times did Trump visit any of the Democratic strong holds? How man y times did he visit the Republican strong holds? Both candidates campaign ed in the battle ground states nearly exclusively unless they were campaign ing for a local politician.
The EC needs to go and people need to stop spreading FUD about it. Stop th e LIES!
-- Rick C. +- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging +- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
e o e
That's a feature provided by the Senate, and it has been widely copied in m ore recent constitutions.
The electoral college selects one person to be president, and over-represen ting the smaller states there was always a silly idea.
The executive president is an even sillier idea, and nobody else has copied that either. Having a prime minister as the head of the executive, and all owing the house of representatives to remove him form power at any time wit h a vote of no confidence, is pretty much universal in actual democracies . It works.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
who looked a lot like Pence and it hit me, Pence has been setting us up all this time. He has no interest in politics. He's doing this so he has lots of material for his standup comedy routine! He's going to take it on the ro ad!!!
dent, PLEASE!"
Kamala is the wanna-be comedian - she laughs at ALL of her very bad jokes!
Getting rid of the electoral college may not solve anything at this point. When you have ~75 million Americans who've decided that democracy is a sham and a fraud and that real combat is preferable to the ritualized combat of a two-party system that does "battle" at the polls then in some sense democracy has already ended, despite the appearance of it being likely to stagger along for a while.
The majority of Americans would not welcome an autocrat _now_. After another 10-15 years of the results of _every_ election being rejected as invalid and bombings, shootings and stabbings in the streets for months while the drama plays out? The majority of Americans will be demanding SOMEBODY put a stop to it at any price.
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tes have in a Presidential election, which is nearly zero.
hey were the states on the edge of 50/50, that could be tipped the most eas ily. It doesn't matter what size you are, it is how tipsy the balance. A la rge boulder laying flat on the ground gets no attention from either party. But a skinny obelisk, ready to be tipped over gets constant shoves from bot h sides no matter how short or tall.
ege, there was concern that the election might come down to a single electo ral vote from one of the two states who apportion their votes. So those sta tes became important again!
otes are from Senators and so not the number of voters, is living a fantasy . When it comes to the electoral college it's all about tipping the scales of each state. If you aren't close to tipping, you get ignored.
wer as everyone else, 1 person, 1 vote, the way it should be.
many times did he visit the Republican strong holds? Both candidates campai gned in the battle ground states nearly exclusively unless they were campai gning for a local politician.
the LIES!
Fiddle Faddle. That's the sort of entertainment you can pay Hollywood for. I remember back when the Boston Marathon was bombed a lady working in a g eneral store around here could not tear herself away from the constant repo rting of the same rehashed stuff on the TV long enough to fry an egg sandwi ch. People eat this stuff up!
Isn't that exactly how Trump got elected? By turning the Presidential race into a prime time reality show!
-- Rick C. --+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging --+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
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