Europe has established a multiparty system since the very beginning of reconstruction after WW2. What it did not do thankfully is go to the US and ask "How does your Electoral College work?" Because it doesn't work when five presidential candidates (in the history of the US) win the presidency having lost the popular-vote! (Including the latest election.) We Yanks do not seem to understand that the voting process is also key to a completely fair election procedure. There is no reason whatsoever that elections cannot be held over a weekend (Saturday & Sunday) to accommodate better those who want to vote in-person thus enhancing the voting process. But without an identity card the means by which an individual collects a hard-copy vote and mails it in is simply to easily falsifiable. Anybody who wants to manipulate the system will simply "buy" these votes if not entered by means of a verified Identity Card! So, the process must include an "authentic" voting-list established by means of a bonafide National Identity Card (based upon DNA and initiated at birth but claimed in person at the legal adult age) with a local address. In such a manner on the chosen Voting Weekend, we get off our collective-duffs and go vote. Only a bonafide illness (verified by the treating MD) can alter this in-person voting process. (The vote collected by hospitals and deposited at the voting site.) Voting in national elections happens twice in four years. And, were the states sufficiently smart they'd peg their state voting procedures with the national one. But let's not ask too much too soon. (Like getting rid of the Electoral College as well - that no other developed nation on earth has ever adopted!) MY POINT? Is all that above so much of a "trouble" to inevitably obtain&maintain a True Democracy? Instead of this feckless highly-manipulable process in place for more than two centuries. Methinks not ... PS: I don't think Americans understand sufficiently well how the present voting system undermines our supposed "Greatest Democracy on Earth!' And that is mostly due to their lack of a proper instruction in Civics. PPS: Never heard of the Civics Learning Act? Me neither! Read about it here: Hastings and Woodall Introduce the Civics Learning Act of 2019 - excerpt:
In before “but we are a republic not a democracy” I agree with your points — so many American’s have no idea how our government is supposed to operate or how it is actually operating. Political engagement and knowledge will do nothing but make the nation stronger.
Actually, our government is fairly simple. What we need is to teach people how to THINK. Or maybe not, most of our recent problems seem to come from the present worldwide resurgence of an ideology most of us thought dead since it nearly destroyed the world in the 1930's and middle 40's and that's not a matter of error but flat out blood dripping evil
Definitions: Republic - a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch. Democracy - a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. There's no difference whatsoever ...
I find it ironic that a poster calling for civic lessons doesn't understand why we have the electoral college. If there were to be civic lessons (and I whole heartedly agree that such SHOULD be taught starting in middle school) then they would explain that we have an electoral college because we are a Nation of States...not one Nation and that is that.
Does France have a codified concept of local sovereignty at all similar to the relationship of State vs Federal govt in the US? I presume not. And unless it does, trying to compare the two is a nonsequitor. Our Union would never have existed without the 'Great Compromise' that led to the institution of the Electoral College. It was a prerequisite for many of our states to join. Connecticut and Delaware, for example, threatenned to ally themselves with foreign powers as opposed to joining the United States, and many others were considering becoming their own nations if there were not protections emplaced against more populous states having an effective monopoly over Federal policy. The EC is therefore in every meaningful way a contractual obligation guaranteed by FedGov to most of the States, and if abolished would legitimize secession and likely break up the Union. Which may not be the worst idea ever imo... but suffice to say, the EC is holding our Union together. Whether the EC undermines democracy or protects the Republic isn't the point. The point is that too many Americans value their local democratic representation more heavily than they value the national union for The Union to survive the abolition of the EC. To put more simply, many Americans value localized democracy > centralized democracy.
How does complaining help? As many post we have had on this subject you would think someone would have enough gumption to start a movement and try to do something about it. As it stands right now it is the law of the land.
I am surprised folks passed over the part where he suggested the government collect every citizens DNA at birth.
Well you certainly don't know how it works else you wouldn't claim there is a popular-vote for President and VP and Europe is not the United STATES of America.
Communists slaughtered over 60 million individuals in WW2.(That being said, I hold that political philosophies should not be held under scrutiny for the wartime situation, as democracies themselves over the centuries have drawn blood as well.). I reject the parts of the philosophy that led to eugenics and racial cullings of individuals, but I don't reject the need to become one whole Nation-State, to unify all Americans under the flag and end racial and political division among us all.
Yep, that's what we need California and New York determining the President every election with the needs of the rest of the country being ignored.
It might actually be pretty great ...after most of the rest of the nation secedes and leaves CA and NY. You can be the Socialist State of America and we'll be the United American States. I might actually watch that football game.
THE CIVICS LEARNING ACT (2019) BEFORE CONGRESS What the OP fails to understand is that the U.S. is union of states, unlike European countries. The constitution calls for the states to elect the president. It works the same for both parties. Talk about learning civics.
