Doesn't the Electoral College system help ensure that the President represents the whole country? If the voters in a few heavily populated states could determine the outcome (because they would determine the popular vote) wouldn't Presidential candidates pander to urbanized areas and ignore rural states?
That is what they are hoping for...I think 2/3rds of the states need to pass the law....
Yes. The Electoral College discourages regional candidates in several ways. It also moderates the effect of a regional disaster (like a hurricane suppressing votes in the east or south), and limits the effects of vote fraud (massive fraud in Florida doesn't directly affect Georgia).
If the voters in a few heavily populated states could determine the outcome (because they would determine the popular vote) wouldn't Presidential candidates pander to urbanized areas and ignore rural states?
You mean blue cities and red states?
Exactly.
Good conclusion, but not a great argument. The big problem with the popular vote is that it would reward states that were willing to over-count their vote. If Rhode Island came up with 50 million votes for Hilary, then by golly we don't know how it happened, but she wins.
"Doesn't the Electoral College system help ensure that the President represents the whole country? If the voters in a few heavily populated states could determine the outcome (because they would determine the popular vote) wouldn't Presidential candidates pander to urbanized areas and ignore rural states?"
Exactly! Surely the tolerant, voice of the little guy Democrats would recognize this. This shows why Bush didn't bother coming to the most populous state during the 04 campaign.
"Doesn't the Electoral College system help ensure that the President represents the whole country?"
Yes, which is why the big blue states (CA and NY) hate it so much.
Yes.
Indeed. Most of redstate America would never lay eyes on a presidential candidate in the flesh.
Exactly right...
In a Gramscian move calling our Republic a Democracy and convincing people that they're the same thing was the beginning of things. There is no "semantics" in the non-violent political overthrow of a government, which is exactly what has been happening for years.
As long as nobody in the public eye recognizes the Republic that we are things won't change.
Who is Antonio Gramsci? You Better Learn!!!
Why There Is A Culture War
Gramsci and Tocqueville in America
Power, in Gramsci’s observation, is exercised by privileged groups or classes in two ways: through domination, force, or coercion; and through something called "hegemony," which means the ideological supremacy of a system of values that supports the class or group interests of the predominant classes or groups. Subordinate groups, he argued, are influenced to internalize the value systems and world views of the privileged groups and, thus, to consent to their own marginalization.