Re: Re: nader/green party (political - duh)

["Peter T. Chattaway" <petert@interchange.ubc.ca>]

On Sat, 21 Feb 2004, Bethany Keeley wrote:
> I disagree.  I think the electoral college is silly and outdated.  What
> it does is polarize geographic areas . . .

Well, yes, this is one of the things that I indicated are actually *good*
about the Electoral College.  It is *because* the Electoral College
polarizes geographic areas that you did not have to suffer through
recounts across the *entire country* back in 2000.  Do you really want a
system where it truly *is* "one person, one vote" and you then get a
reeeeally close election like you had in 2000, and suddenly everyone is
demanding recounts across the board?  Do you want to see Florida writ
large across the entire nation?  Somehow I don't think so.

I think there is also a good case to be made that the Electoral College
compel politicians to pay attention to *all* of the country's regions in a
way that a "one person, one vote" system probably would not.

> . . . and it makes dissenters voices count for less.

Uh, how does it do this?  The whole point of the Electoral College is that
it determines who becomes the President.  There is only one person who
"counts" and that's the one who wins.  Second place comes away with
nothing, and so do third place, and fourth place, and so on.  If anything,
the very fact that the Electoral College polarizes geographic areas makes
dissenters' voices count for *more*, because it allows dissenters to
seriously damage any given major party by drawing away just enough votes
to cripple them absolutely in certain geographic areas.

Which takes us back to Nader and Gore.

> This seems un-democratic to me, especially in the world of mass
> communication and global culture.

Uh, what has "global culture" got to do with national elections?

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter@chattaway.com ---
Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments; only afterwards do they
   claim remembrance, on account of their scars. -- Chris Marker, La Jetee

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