thoughts?

[aubiefifty 18,260]

The Electoral College is an antiquated system that was born from the enslavement of Black people in America.

It is high time to end this racist relic once and for all. We need to abolish the Electoral College now.

this was posted from a black caucus wanting donations. if true i did not realize it was used as a racist tool.

[homersapien 12,248]

Geez fifty, search [electoral college slavery].

Pretty much all of our history, our government has been influenced to one degree or the other by slavery, until it was abolished. 

Edited August 20 by homersapien

[SaltyTiger 8,581]

4 hours ago, homersapien said:

Pretty much all of our history our government has been influenced to one degree or the other by slavery, until it was abolished. 

All of history has been influenced by slavery. Even Gods “chosen” were enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar. Read about it.

[autigeremt 7,230]

4 hours ago, homersapien said:

Geez fifty, search [electoral college slavery].

Pretty much all of our history our government has been influenced to one degree or the other by slavery, until it was abolished. 

Globally 

[AURex 2,261]

The Electoral College was devised from the very beginning of the newly created U.S. The driving force behind this strategy for selecting Presidents and Vice Presidents was not, in my study of the founding of our nation, entirely rooted in slavery, because at that time, slaves (and women) were not permitted to vote. However, slavery did have an influence in the way the Electoral College was established.

A primary concern of the Founding Fathers was the skepticism/fear of real democracy, i.e. mob rule. The founders (and their primary constituents) were landed gentry and the educated elites. The last thing they wanted was hoards of uneducated lower class population, who could be easily swayed by cultish orators and sinister ideologies, taking over selection of these two important federal positions.

It was intended as a way to assure that every state had a say in the matter, no matter how small or large. And note the language of Article 2 in the Constitution. Each state can decide on delegates to the Electoral College however they want to. There is no Constitutional requirement that a vote of a state's populace decides who the electors are. States could, legally, if they wanted, use a method in which their state legislature or even their governor decides who to send. Although most states now have legislation that determines Electoral College delegates on statewide popular vote, a couple of states have wrinkles.

But the role of the slave states in this whole plan was a compromise that gave more power to the slave states. The slave states could count slaves as 3/5 of a person (gasp) in their reckoning of number of delegates, even though slaves could not vote. This gave the slave states an outsized impact on selection of the President and Vice President.

This was a hotly contested plan. Hamilton and his supporters preferred election of President and Vice President entirely upon popular vote of the citizens of the U.S. (At that time, mostly white men.) Although slavery is no longer legal in the U.S., arguments still exist regarding counting of migrants as populace, even if they cannot vote. Tables turned.

 

[homersapien 12,248]

11 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

All of history has been influenced by slavery. Even Gods “chosen” were enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar. Read about it.

No thanks. Not particularly interested.  Current era keeps me occupied.

I think the original point was concerned with how our archaic system came to be.

Edited August 20 by homersapien

[homersapien 12,248]

10 hours ago, AURex said:

....The last thing they wanted was hoards of uneducated lower class population, who could be easily swayed by cultish orators and sinister ideologies, taking over selection of these two important federal positions......

Ironic, huh?

[autigeremt 7,230]

The never ending, leaning backwards. Slavery, a bastion of global economics for centuries (and continues as we speak) across the globe, is a part of the history of the US because of the time in which the country was founded. Fortunately we woke the hell up and separated ourselves from that horrible act. It took a civil war and years of civil rights activists fighting against the remnants….but lo and behold we have people who refuse to lean forward. 
 

The Electoral College isn’t the problem. It’s the dumbasses who keep getting selected to compete in it. 

[AURex 2,261]

Well, the Electoral College really is the problem. Republicans have not won the popular vote for a long time. The only way a Republican ever gets elected to the Presidency in our generation is due to the arcane Electoral College that gives outsized votes to former slave states rather than national tally of citizen votes.

 

[autigeremt 7,230]

7 minutes ago, AURex said:

Well, the Electoral College really is the problem. Republicans have not won the popular vote for a long time. The only way a Republican ever gets elected to the Presidency in our generation is due to the arcane Electoral College that gives outsized votes to former slave states rather than national tally of citizen votes.

 

I didn’t know Montana was a former slave state? Or Ohio? 👀

[AURex 2,261]

At the time, the slave states were Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky. North Carolina, Virginia, New Mexico, and Arizona. Montana and Idaho weren't much involved in the early development of the U.S. It was this block of states that were needed to pacify in order to ratify the Constitution.

 

 

 

[autigeremt 7,230]

6 hours ago, AURex said:

At the time, the slave states were Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky. North Carolina, Virginia, New Mexico, and Arizona. Montana and Idaho weren't much involved in the early development of the U.S. It was this block of states that were needed to pacify in order to ratify the Constitution.

 

 

 

In other words…..to hell with the working class, blue collar folk. Your vote is now the new 3/5. Suck it 

[auburnatl1 6,189]

I think people struggle with the US’s historical construct of being both integrated and loosely coupled. Central/Federal AND local/states.  You see it in institutions such as the Senate, amendment ratification, and yes the electoral college.  It’s been a point of contention since Jefferson and Hamilton. Personally I have less of an issue with the electoral college than the winner takes all approach (vs prorated electoral votes) - prorate and you mathematically fix 99% of the problem.

The point being if you go down the fully integrated country path and blowing up the EC, philosophically you can’t stop there. The entire premise of how much of the gov is currently structured would need to be redesigned.