It says that you may or may not actually be voting for a policy or candidate; in the case of the Presidency, it turns out that you're actually voting for EC members. What's irritating is that everyone knows this and people mostly don't care very much until their candidate loses. Changing this could easily have been done over the last 16 years if anyone gave much of a shit, but our hypocritical politicians only care when they don't believe they have a "blue wall".
The fact that other people and institutions are involved in the processes does not negate or diminish the role of the President. If you think ANYONE would have started the Iraq War, and it's just a coincidence that the architects of it happened to have been pushing for it for a decade beforehand, you don't live in reality.
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
The left should just stop voting since their votes do not matter. Its the best winning strategy aside from the one Hillary used where she blamed all the problems in the country on white folks.
"It doesn't matter if you believe me or not but common sense doesn't really work here. You're mad, I'm mad. We're all MAD here."
I posted the stats above: the EC is not popular and as far as I can trace back polls, never has been. "Nobody cares" is a load of shit, the problem is that it requires a change to the electoral system on a federal level and we all know how bitter that fight would be. Easily done my fucking ass.
This whole system is not balancing power well at all. Democrats keep getting more votes for the presidency, the house, and the senate, yet somehow end up repeatedly being out of power. We have some state houses where democrats represent half the voters but Republicans control the states with majorities like 14-3. Republicans have rigged our electoral systems in their favor, partially through relying on economically successful blue states to subsidize their failed states.
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
California, the sixth largest economy on the planet, which supports not only two of the largest exporting industries in America (tech and entertainment) but also a big chunk of agriculture as well, all while only getting 79 cents on the dollar for the federal taxes it pays? Is that the California we are talking about?
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
Those of who actually paid attention, as opposed to those of us who read facebook memes and confuse it for education, know that the definition of democracy includes any system where the representatives are elected by the people, even if totally indirectly. We also know that when the founders talked about "democracy" they meant "direct democracy" because the definition has changed over time to include indirect democracy as a form of democracy. Maybe you should crack a fucking book instead of telling other people to do so.
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
You are right, I remember when in school we would stand up every morning and pledge allegiance to the flag, for the democracy.... oh wait, we called it a republic every god damn day.
- - - Updated - - -
Maybe Iowa should pull itself up by its bootstraps then and stop taking my money. If they want to be economically successful, they should do it by modeling themselves on successful states, not mooching off them.
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
No offence but you don't know what the fuck you are talking about and all the people repeating this nonsense need to cut it out.
America is a democracy. Democracy is a very broad term. Most Republics are democratic in one way or another, "democracy" says nothing about how extensive the franchise is or how it is applied. In Australia we don't vote for our Prime Minister directly at all, but we're a democracy (shit, technically we have a fucking Queen). Before black and female suffrage the majority of the US wasn't eligible to vote, and it was a democracy. In ancient Rome you had to be a free man with a certain level of wealth to vote, and it was a democracy. The Greeks chose their rulers by a jury and they "invented" democracy.
And saying it's a Republic, not a Democracy, is like saying "this isn't an apple, it's a fruit".
For the record - a democracy is a pretty vague term for any system where the people rule, through representatives or otherwise, irrespective of how many are enfranchised or through what system. A republic is a sovereign state ruled by elected representatives of the people (rather than a monarch etc). Most (all?) republics are democracies, though some non-republics are also democracies, eg the UK which is technically a constitutional monarchy.
Do I think anyone would have started the war nope and never said that but I am pretty sure anyone would have signed the bill to make our highway system. Also the ware couldn't have been started without the local government backing the president and the local government is what has a huge impact on an individual's life