[Vigilanteman]

still moaning about the electoral college . . .

My favorite retort to this moaning is to ask them to list the countries who elect their national leader by direct popular vote. They usually give me a blank stare and I tell them there is one country on the list, but there used to be two.

The one country is North Korea, the second (former) country is Iraq under Saddam.

I then tell them that if we followed the Parlimentary system practiced in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and most of Europe, then George Bush would have been voted out of office in 2006.

They get this big silly smile on their face before I add "And Obama would have been voted out in 2010."

[Mears]

Thanks for that great info-—now I can make better arguments. :-)

.

[edwinland]

My favorite retort to this moaning is to ask them to list the countries who elect their national leader by direct popular vote. They usually give me a blank stare and I tell them there is one country on the list, but there used to be two. The one country is North Korea, the second (former) country is Iraq under Saddam.

The rest of your post is great but this point is not accurate, at least according to PEW, there's 33 countries with a combined head of state and government (as in the U.S.) that elect that person by direct popular vote:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/22/among-democracies-u-s-stands-out-in-how-it-chooses-its-head-of-state/ft_16-11-21_headsofstate_bar/