American democracy is broken

Interesting, but the above is a Point Of View that is TWO-CENTURIES OLD!

And it was done at that time because the southern-states were threatening to LEAVE THE "UNION" because the North wanted to "free the slaves", which would have destroyed for many important families their very large incomes.

So, the palliative solution was to arrange an Electoral College that gave them more "voting power".

Do you seriously think that is a reason that should justify the EC today?

 

That was not the question...I was simply explaining what it was and how it works.

 

Funny. You quote me out of context and then respond to the realm of the context which you left out. Here, let me refresh: For the uninitiated, just look at clips of their faces on election night. They were supposed to be reporting the results of the election. Instead it was lamentations.

 

Auto-funding of campaigns would allow more people to participate as candidates, which would provide us with more choices, and enliven the campaign process. Internet voting sounds exciting, & I hope it can be done, but hackers are a danger here (especially Russian ones) unless you can provide guaranteed safety. We don't want hackers electing our leaders, do we?

 

Blah, blah, blah in a DEBATE Forum! (Where there aint no room for emotions!)

Moving right along ...

 

If one is too lazy to get off their arse to vote, one doesn't deserve the right to vote.

 

Our press is supposed to be free and objective. They aren't. They are in the tank for leftist philosophy. They may as well be stuffing the ballot boxes in broad daylight. That is the biggest threat to a free and fair election, and to a free country. Their faces and attitudes on election night and every day since is clear proof. If you want to close your eyes to that, then fine.

 

There's no easy way, guy, there's no easy way.

But guess what? There IS an easier way.

 

MAY HEAVEN HELP AMERICA

Most people nowadays cannot be qualified as Left or Right - which is how Donald Dork got elected.

We'll see how that works out the second-time around, now that Americans have seen his incompetence as PotUS.

The guy is sick, sick, sick in the head - and we were told that from the get-go. See Psychology Today here [Sep 28, 2017] - excerpt:

And again, here [Sep 12, 2018] - excerpt:

The evidence is patent. What is less evident, is the fact that millions of Americans prepared to reelect him can't believe it!

Such is life in this quirky-country that has become the America of today:
*Hundreds of Americans are being shot by their fellow Americans who go berserk by employing an automatic weapon to show their sickened-frustration, and
*Donald Dork sits in the White House twittering his life away with asinine commentary.

May heaven help America ...

 

I don't think it is broke yet. But it will be if Democratic Socialist is elected President.

 

First of all, you don't seem to know the meaning of "Socialist". Look it up - I am tired of placing it here. Anyway, it includes the government ownership of all means of production!

And that aint gonna happin ever in the US! So, you are barking up the wrong tree!

Secondly, the Dems should promise to provide (but dont today) for the primary elements of human well-being. That is,

There are some other elements to be added above, but those listed are good enough for starters ...

 

Try HARD to explain why.

Otherwise, you are just pissing into a Debate Forum ... !

 

:Trump has only demonstrated long existing flaws in the US system of government. In some instances I grant he appears to have broken the law but most of his unprecedented actions have simply taken advantage of a peculiar system that grants the executive branch far, far too much power.
Holders of the office have over time through their basic decency papered over the cracks in the system. Trump with Putin’s intelligent understanding of the flaws in American so called democracy has been able to run amok. Until and unless this system of government is repaired by changes such as removing the Electoral College ,putting an end to electoral gerrymandering and no longer allowing appointment of Supreme Court judges to be the exclusive right of the executive branch America will continue down the path it’s now towards a second civil war.

 

Most democracies on earth do not have a two-party system and their Head of government derives from the majority party of the Legislature. I'm not saying that solution is any better.

I note nonetheless that the result of the Great Recession whacked harder the EU economy than the US (that recuperated quicker). But this is due to the fact that the US is more "homogenized" than Europe with its multiple languages. Which prevents all but those who have mastered English to sit and wait in their home-countries for economies to improve.

This will change over time, because the younger set (and even the youngest set) are being taught English is primary and secondary school (In the northern countries. (The southern EU-countries are helpless in English.)

Putin was messing around with the American electoral system but Trump still lost popular-vote. Unless, Putin had his mignons influence voters in those small states that over over-sized EC-votes. I've seen no evidence of this - but, then, only the CIA-really knows and Donald Dork certainly will not have them spilling the beans!

The Electoral College was instituted (very unwisely) in the early 19th century (thus for historical reasons the vote-per-state is inherently unfair). But, I must admit that a very great portion of the American public is emotionally WEDDED to that period of time. This is something one learns in primary and secondary schools.

It would take a majority vote in all states to do away with the EC - it is anchored in the Constitution. So that will not happen any time soon.

What could happen,perhaps, is that Congress passed a law that maintains the state-EC but simply requires it to report the state's total popular-vote* (and only its popular vote) to Congress, who then announces the winner. (Which is the way it is done presently.) This would be far more in line with electoral fairness, and would prevent any future Donald Dork from winning the presidency having lost the popular-vote!

Methinks ...

*The number of EC-voters allocated to each state is determined by statistical analyses of the state's population every decade. What must-change is that the existing 12th Amendment stipulates that the state allocates the entire EC-vote to the winner of the popular vote. So ipso-facto all those who voted against that majority-winner find their votes simply alloted to the candidate for whom they did not vote! To my mind, that is not fair-and-just and it must end! Only the raw popular-vote by state must decide the PotUS election.

 

A percentage of the voting population has conditions that prevent them from getting out to a polling place to vote. But in Oregon we have had vote-by-mail for a few decades and it works great. You don't have to vote your ballot on Tuesday and get it into the mail. You can do it on Sunday or Wednesday or any other day within a couple of weeks to fit it into your life situation and convenience. One drawback for republicans is that it produced an increase in voting. They don't like that. But it has worked very well and has proven more reliable than going to the polls.

 

No. It's broke. Trump broke it with the help of Republicans. Now Democrats seem to be helping too.

 

I do know what Socialism is. And most Congressional Democrats are members of both the Democratic Socialist Party and the communist Party of America. That speaks for itself.

Anytime the Federal Government gets involved with laws that affect citizens, it never ends good. It wasn't that long ago that Education was left to State and local Government. Then came the Federal Department of Education, and Education has suffered since then. I believe my elementary and high school education in the 60s and 70s was better. And my College Education wasn't littered by Liberal Professor bias.

And to your point. True socialism is the worst but the quasi-socialism the Democrats are pushing is just as bad.

I doubt you know more than any of us in this forum regarding the meaning of Socialism. Don't flatter yourself.

 

Well, that’s a new conspiracy theory the kind of which I’d only expect from the lunatic American right. Maybe you should exhume McCarthy ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

 

Bollocks!
Your posts show adquately that you haven't the foggiest notion of what, historically, Socialism is and is not. From here:

The first fact that you need to put in your head that Socialism per se no longer exists anywhere in the world. It has long since been replaced by Social Democracy of which is constituted that "political democratic-entity on the other side of the Atlantic" called the European Union.

And yet more insulting comments that are factually incorrect:
*State and local governments provide Primary and Secondary Education to all free, gratis and for nothing.
*Tertiary education (which is a fundamental necessity today) is costed today at state-schools (providing Associate, Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees) at $14K a year. If a family is living below the Poverty Threshold ($25K of revenue a year for a family of four) just HOW DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO BE ABLE AFFORD TO SEND THEIR KIDS TO "OBTAIN A DEGREE"?

And simpletons like you don't understand that "Socialism" no longer exists in any functional democracy on earth!

My responses above prove amply that the simpleton in this discussion is YOU! You have no understanding whatsoever regarding political history. And you have swallowed hook, line and sinker the political-pablum handed to you by the Rabid Right in America ...

 

Yes, well mine WAS littered with Left Wing bias but I had to come to Europe to find the effective solution. Whilst the US is mired in a patent "Get-rich-quick Give-away of upper-income taxation. Thus screwing the consumers (meaning everybody) who generated the means of obtaining all income in a market-economy.

And to your point. True socialism is the worst but the quasi-socialism the Democrats are pushing is just as bad.

I doubt you know more than any of us in this forum regarding the meaning of Socialism. Don't flatter yourself.[/QUOTE]

You've got this THING in your head about "socialism".

Quasi-socialism is having two basic governmental provisions:
*A National Healthcare system that does NOT COST an arm-and-a-leg to patients because America's version is the most expensive of any developed economy. Which is the prime reason that the lifespan has recently been reduced to 79 years (compared to 83 for the European Union where National Healthcare has existed for the past 30 years.)
*A post-secondary education the cost of which is assumed by the state (but very largely financed Federally), which would give the 55% of today's high-school graduates WHO DO NOT SEEK A POST-SECONDARY DEGREE to do so. And thus the ability to obtain a Real Education that would procure them a much higher salary than today's average (at $56.5K which they will never attain in their lifetime. (The Poverty Threshold income for a family of four being $26K per year.)

Right now, today, half your taxation that becomes Discretionary Expenditure goes to the DoD - and there is no real threatening war to the US either at present or likely in the future. The DoD is one humongous boondoggle for "defense industries" In a country that blatantly has much higher priorities!

As shown in the two provisions mentioned above ... !

 

Pure and simple crapola. There are no such entities in the US.

There are however some (very smart people) who have Social Democrat leanings. But, you MUST learn first what those two words mean.

That's going to be Mission Impossible for you ...

 

Oh good. More government abuse of power. I'll vote for that.

 

I'm not a fence sitter. I am a hard core conservative. But I hate politics and political parties. I understand that voting never fixes anything. So I don't out of laziness. I don't vote out of conviction.

 

Let me help him out. "Social democrat" means a supporter of a high level of social spending in federal government. It has little to do with socialism. It has to do with growing the power of government. It is actually worse than socialism.

 

This entire thread is a basket full of nonsense, lol...

Have any of you leftists read a single word of history as it relates to democracy?? Democracy is a terrible form of government - that is what history teaches.

More ignorant people voting will only increase the number of demagogic thieves raiding the treasury and destroying our country.