This has been covered - there's no practical value to the Electoral College, but it's not going to change any time soon because someone in power always believes they can benefit from the status quo.
1 of the primary advantages of having a "Democracy" was originally intended so that the people had a voice and could choose their leader. But thanks to the Electoral College it goes like this...
People say: "I want this guy!"
Electoral College says: "Nah, we want the other guy, and we'd apologize for disagreeing with your choice, but we don't care"
Some democracy this is.
The real question is, why have we as a nation moved so much closer to democracy while tearing down the initiations of the republic as we do so? Democracy ultimately dooms any nation that follows it and we as a nation continue to move closer and closer to democracy. That trend should be reversed for the good of the nation overall.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
Revelation 6:8
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Most people are incredibly stupid, which is why we're a Republic and not a Democracy(it shocks me how many people think we are a democracy though!)
Or we can just ignore thousands of years of history and repeat the same mistakes, that would work out great.
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
Revelation 6:8
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The thing that sucks in my opinion the way things are done now, is if you are on the losing party for your state EC wise, your vote doesn't count. Say what you want but if the individual count for California came down to one vote, the winning 56 or so EC votes would go to that party.
Why not have the vote set at district level? Each EC ballot divied up to a district within the state. Say then the state (California in my example) would have 35 Dem votes and 21 Rep votes. Then pool that with the other states. Yes I know some states would have less EC (district) votes ie: Montana/Wyoming, but you'd just keep adding them up till all districts in every state were accounted for.
Of course nothing will ever change the way things are done now because that would allow a third party to contest the two primary parties now. Or at least have some sway in the votes. Pretty much Dems/Reps have a monopoly on the voting system and that is something they both agree on.
Its not stupid, its that no one understands what the hell its for. The United States IS NOT a democracy...that it what you have to understand to begin with. The citizens were NEVER intended to vote directly for the president. Unfortunately, over half the states have laws that force the electoral college to vote with the popular vote. This is bad, because it removes the original intention of state representation.
Citizens were only intended to vote for their state representatives...who in turn would be the vote for the president. Unfortunately, most people do not give a shit about the small elections, as they really should. They only feel the vote for president is the one that matters, and it is not. This is why the laws were put in place to force the electoral college to vote with the popular vote...because we screwed it up by not caring about the smaller elections that actually matter.
It's a huge contributing factor to most fascist governments; it's a hell of a lot easier to institute extreme authoritarian policies if there's no vote.
---------- Post added 2012-10-31 at 04:35 PM ----------
I have no idea what this assertion is based on.