Alaska for Obama?

wrote:
On Jul 29, 6:35 pm, rw wrote:


The only real effect is to magnify the voting power of residents of
small states at the expense of residents of large states,


And that, IMO, helps protect the interests of the varied populations,
cultures, and lifestyles throughout our very large and diverse
country. I'm all for it. We are, after all, a federation of _states_.

Jon.

Can you explain why a resident of Alaska should have (effectively) three
votes for every one vote of a resident of California or Texas?

If you truly want a federation of states, the electoral system is a
screwy way to achieve it. The power of small states is already protected
by every state having two senators. (Until 1913 Senators were elected by
state legislatures, not by popular vote. That was changed by the 17th
amendment, so electoral reform is possible.)

The president should be the president of ALL the people, and should be
elected by popular vote. We should also scrap the state-by-state
winner-take-all system because that also can lead to democratically
illegitimate outcomes.

The current electoral system is merely an obsolete, obscure, unfair,
antidemocratic, and ponderous system born of a compromise necessary to
get 13 states to ratify the constitution. Another compromise was to
count slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of congressional
representation (although they had no vote, of course).

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

"rw" wrote in message
m...
snip

The president should be the president of ALL the people, and should be
elected by popular vote. We should also scrap the state-by-state
winner-take-all system because that also can lead to democratically
illegitimate outcomes.

The current electoral system is merely an obsolete, obscure, unfair,
antidemocratic, and ponderous system born of a compromise necessary to get
13 states to ratify the constitution. Another compromise was to count
slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of congressional representation
(although they had no vote, of course).

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Interesting rant compared to your silence during the primaries re that
"system".

Bob Weinberger La Grande,OR


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Bob Weinberger wrote:
"rw" wrote in message
m...
snip

The president should be the president of ALL the people, and should be
elected by popular vote. We should also scrap the state-by-state
winner-take-all system because that also can lead to democratically
illegitimate outcomes.

The current electoral system is merely an obsolete, obscure, unfair,
antidemocratic, and ponderous system born of a compromise necessary to get
13 states to ratify the constitution. Another compromise was to count
slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of congressional representation
(although they had no vote, of course).

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.


Interesting rant compared to your silence during the primaries re that
"system".

Bob Weinberger La Grande,OR

So now you're criticizing me for what I DIDN'T say about politics on a
flyfishing newsgroup? That's a first, I believe.

BTW, I wouldn't call this a "rant." It's an opinion.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

"rw" wrote in message
m...

So now you're criticizing me for what I DIDN'T say about politics on a
flyfishing newsgroup? That's a first, I believe.

BTW, I wouldn't call this a "rant." It's an opinion.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address


My, how thin skinned. No criticism. Simply an observation of an apparrent
inconsistency.

Bob Weinberger La Grande ,OR


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Jul 30, 10:38 am, rw wrote:

Can you explain why a resident of Alaska should have (effectively) three
votes for every one vote of a resident of California or Texas?

Which vote will get more campaign dollars spent trying to sway it?

Jon.

wrote:
On Jul 30, 10:38 am, rw wrote:


Can you explain why a resident of Alaska should have (effectively) three
votes for every one vote of a resident of California or Texas?


Which vote will get more campaign dollars spent trying to sway it?

Jon.

You've touched on another problem with our electoral system. The
state-by-state winner-take-all system concentrates campaign effort and
money into a few "swing" states, while the candidates all but ignore the
voters in solidly red or blue states. This isn't good. It holds our
politics hostage to small, highly motivated constituencies in the swing
states.

A good example is Florida, where the candidates have to kowtow to the
Cuban-American vote. As a result, I believe, our foreign policy with
respect to Cuba has been stagnant and counterproductive for decades.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

On Jul 30, 1:58 pm, rw wrote:

You've touched on another problem with our electoral system. The
state-by-state winner-take-all system concentrates campaign effort and
money into a few "swing" states, while the candidates all but ignore the
voters in solidly red or blue states. This isn't good. It holds our
politics hostage to small, highly motivated constituencies in the swing
states.

So we should go back to locally elected electoral college members who
will considerately cast their vote for president? ;-)

Jon.

wrote in message
...
On Jul 30, 1:58 pm, rw wrote:

You've touched on another problem with our electoral system. The
state-by-state winner-take-all system concentrates campaign effort and
money into a few "swing" states, while the candidates all but ignore the
voters in solidly red or blue states. This isn't good. It holds our
politics hostage to small, highly motivated constituencies in the swing
states.

So we should go back to locally elected electoral college members who
will considerately cast their vote for president? ;-)

Jon.

They were not locally elected. The Federal founding Fathers left it up to
the states on how they picked the voters in the Electoral College. And the
reason Alaska gets the minimum is they have 2 Senators and only one
Representative.
EC set up for just this reason. Did not allow the big states to run
roughshod over the small states.

rw wrote:


A good example is Florida, where the candidates have to kowtow to the
Cuban-American vote. As a result, I believe, our foreign policy with
respect to Cuba has been stagnant and counterproductive for decades.


....not to mention the problems in being able to fish in some of the
finest salt water fisheries and freshwater bass lakes in the world.