I can certainly understand that, seeing as how the EC overruling the direct expression of the people’s will has worked so well for us! GeeDubya and now Trump, hard to argue with that! Though I admit to a sentimental attachment to that whole “by the people, for the people” thing. but really, what is that when compared to the wonders of “federalism”! Too many for me, I fold.
Neither Gore nor Hillary won a majority of the popular vote. So I guess you’re fine with 48% deciding the winner? That wouldn’t be overruling the direct expression of the people’s will?
Not entirely correct. The Green Party touts 157 elected officeholders, primarily on the local level:
http://www.gp.org/officeholders
While not a truly national effort, it’s still a little more than just participating in presidential elections.
And that exclusive club will be almost completely made up of the top 5%.
It was everyone’s job to make sure an abortion like Trump wasn’t elected, and anyone who didn’t because they were too busy being butthurt to do anything about it deserves every ounce of scorn available.
Even fewer of We The People wanted anyone else. So, since there has to be a winner, who should it be?
For anyone awake in jr. high civics, why we have an electoral college and things called states aren’t mysteries.
Um, he’s distinguishing between what is and what should be.
Well if you really want a “will of the people” vote, obviously a popular vote would require some kind of runoff or preference ranking. But a distinct criticism: the reason the electoral vote can be so different from the popular is because of the fact that most states have a first past the post assigning of all their EC votes. elucidator seems that’s perfectly fine for a national presidential vote. After all, Clinton and Gore were the “real” choice of the people with 48%.
True, I don’t remember much about seventh grade, except that it was the worst three years of my life.
The immense lack of support for any but the two parties would suggest we pretty much already have that. Are you suggesting that Trump might plausibly have beaten Clinton head-to-head in a runoff?
Your criticism is then that the EC vote doesn’t sufficiently reflect the popular vote.
Welcome to the team. 
Of course he could have. What’s so unbelievable about that? Clinton won the popular by less than the Libertarian vote.
My criticism was about “Clinton was the real choice of the people” position, which is clearly false if you believe in majority rule.
You mean the None of the Above vote? Tell me who’d they vote for in a runoff, if they even turned out.
Then let’s do go to a popular vote and find out, shall we?
When its very close, the concept of a “winner” is about half-moot, there isn’t a clear “winner”. That’s when the tiresome and tedious arts of compromise are the only reasonable approach.
Like when GeeDubya “won*”. Remember the speech he gave right away, about how he recognizes the disparity and promised to proceed in a way that emphasized compromise and refused any suggestion of a mandate from the people? Neither do I.
Let me ask, when would you get uncomfortable? Half a million votes doesn’t bother you, three million you shrug off. So, five? Ten? Twenty? How much of that shit can you eat and not puke?
You’re the one who seems confident about it for no discernable reason. You are absolutely positive that a runoff turnout would have favored Clinton? Not even 2% worth of doubt in your mind?
So now we’re supposed to be arguing about some “mandate” bullshit? No thanks.
Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus are functionally regional designations in Ohio rather than merely their cities. The politics of the state generally go from liberal in the northeast to conservative as you get towards the Ohio River, with expected local variations between liberal and conservative based on rural/urban locales.
I’d be surprised if Athens wasn’t the most liberal area in all of Ohio. It has a reputation for being Ohio’s Berkeley/Chapel Hill/Ithaca.
Kinda important if you’re going to have a democracy, innit?
Nope. What is is objective. What should be is a matter of debate.
And guess what we’re here for!