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(USA Today)   If we abolish the Electoral College, we'll go back to feudalism, with everyone in rural areas and red states being serfs. Blue states shrug, holler "BRING OUT YER DEAD"   (usatoday.com) divider line
    More: Interesting, Elections, Election, Voting, National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, President of the United States, Trent England, Electoral College, City  
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1661 clicks; posted to Politics » on 13 Feb 2020 at 4:05 PM (3 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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2020-02-13 1:25:08 PM  
media1.tenor.comView Full Size
 
2020-02-13 2:05:38 PM  
Red states and rural areas already have plenty of serfs. I don't know what else you'd call migrant workers, wage slaves in right-to-work states, and the for-profit prison workforce.

This is why anyone trotting out that "economic anxiety" horseshiat can go piss up a rope. Idiot MAGAs simultaneously heiling their fuhrer's pronouncements of the greatest economy in human history while popping pills to chase away the desperation from not being able to pay the bills on their minimum wage job at the hillbilly mines. What they're truly afraid of, more than anything, is that something will happen where they can't look down on the Mexicans and the blacks anymore. Which is why anything that even hints at minorities somehow being their equals enrages them the most. It's okay to be a serf as long as you're still above the black serfs on the other side of town.
 
2020-02-13 2:31:29 PM  
Yes, yes. Having everyone's vote count exactly the same is sooooo un-American.  Why would we ever consider such craziness?
 
2020-02-13 2:35:59 PM  
oh no not the rural areas...noooo....what will we do without the brain trust that created cow tipping?
 
2020-02-13 2:41:09 PM  
The flyover states that rely on tax payer money from the "elite" blue states have more representation than the blue states do. And in typical fashion they manage to still play the victim.
 
2020-02-13 3:38:26 PM  
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YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT

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2020-02-13 3:39:36 PM  
Ironically the liberal ideas like universal health care, childhood nutrition, and educational opportunity do at least as much to help the poor Trump voters as anyone else. Try it guys, you'll like it!
 
2020-02-13 3:50:10 PM  
Right now land owners have more voting power due to the EC. How is it fair that me and 3 million of my fellow city dwellers votes did not count in 2016?
 
2020-02-13 4:07:02 PM  

Supadope: Right now land owners have more voting power due to the EC. How is it fair that me and 3 million of my fellow city dwellers votes did not count in 2016?


Because America's opinion of itself has never lived up to it's reality.
 
2020-02-13 4:07:37 PM  
Bollocks
 
2020-02-13 4:08:04 PM  
The EC, as well as the R party and Fox News is a cancer on American society.
 
2020-02-13 4:08:23 PM  
Have been pro-meteor this whole time but willing to listen to plague's platform if it's comprehensive.
 
2020-02-13 4:08:32 PM  
Feudalism? [ inigo.jpg ]
 
2020-02-13 4:08:58 PM  
Derp dichotomy much?
 
2020-02-13 4:09:01 PM  
It's a risk I'm willing to take.
 
2020-02-13 4:10:03 PM  
Wow, the GOP really hates a level playing field where each vote has the same weight, don't they?
 
2020-02-13 4:10:14 PM  
If we abide by the tenets of democracy, it will make us just like a feudal monarchy so we must adopt a totalitarian minority gov't to assert true freedom!
 
2020-02-13 4:10:33 PM  
I smell fear. I really hope enough states sign up for the EV popular vote. I can hear the panties twisting from here.

Good!
 
2020-02-13 4:10:53 PM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2020-02-13 4:11:11 PM  
Yes, because these poverty stricken rural wastelands are sooo wonderful thanks to the electoral college. If we took the EC away they might lose all those sweet jobs and federal aid that they already don't have anyway.
 
2020-02-13 4:11:40 PM  

Demetrius: Yes, yes. Having everyone's vote count exactly the same is sooooo un-American.  Why would we ever consider such craziness?


You see the Founding Fathers thought about this and realized this would be tyranny of the majority. So what we have is a system where the most populous areas are ignored in favor of a handful of swing states and the country is ruled by the slightly-less-popular party largely through corruption. That has nothing to do with what the Founding Fathers envisioned but I definitely remember that they hated the tyranny of the majority.
 
2020-02-13 4:11:49 PM  
This is the most idiotic argument.

Blue states WANT CONSERVATIVES TO HAVE BETTER JOBS. In part, because conservatives make up a good chunk of blue states.

it's the CONSERVATIVES who are lazy pieces of shiat.
 
2020-02-13 4:11:53 PM  
The workers are in the goddamn cities!
 
2020-02-13 4:13:04 PM  
I'll send them some bootstraps.
 
2020-02-13 4:13:15 PM  
As someone from a rural state tha produces energy, timber, and other minerals, let me say good.

Housing prices are so high that rent is almost unaffordable without multifamily homes, the minimum wage isn't enough to survive on, and a good deal of our population that is not out of state workers are the elderly that seem to want serfs.

Make the rural states actually pay their own way.

Just like all those rugged farmers after trump's trade war was killing their farms they and the anti welfare red states will be the first in line for the handout.
 
2020-02-13 4:13:15 PM  
Yep. Because President is the only official that American's vote for. All representatives and senators are appointed by and are ceded authority through the President, who of course has a divine mandate of rulership. All local political positions are in turn appointed by the Representatives and Senators, and so on and so forth, on down the line until you reach the humble dog-catcher and street-urchin wrangler.
 
2020-02-13 4:13:18 PM  
Good.
 
2020-02-13 4:13:24 PM  

saturn badger: I smell fear. I really hope enough states sign up for the EV popular vote. I can hear the panties twisting from here.

Good!

How about getting individual Electors to pledge to cast their vote, not for their party's nominee, but for whoever won the popular vote?
 
2020-02-13 4:13:43 PM  
I wonder if Mike Bloomberg used his money to help relocate democrats to red states if that would be the best way to combat the stupidity that is Washington DC

I wonder what the actual numbers of people who would have to move would be.

would it only take say 10k or 20k in specific states ? or would the number be much much higher ?

I understand that not many people want to live in some of these red states but it seems to be the best way to destroy their "firewall" is from within
 
2020-02-13 4:13:51 PM  
Ok. So?

/yes I know that won't happen, but I think they have misjudged how much we would care it it did
 
2020-02-13 4:14:04 PM  
Reigning in Texas and Florida is a GOOD thing.
 
2020-02-13 4:14:24 PM  
If your state would be a shiathole without being able to have more say in the presidential election than it deserves, that sounds like a you problem, not the rest of the country's.
 
2020-02-13 4:14:25 PM  
If the National Popular Vote drive kills the Electoral College, rural and small town Americans who supply our food and energy will lose their voice.

Texas is number one in farmland by A LOT.  You know, the second most populous state in the union.  Those poor underrepresented rural folk.
 
2020-02-13 4:15:52 PM  

kindms: I wonder if Mike Bloomberg used his money to help relocate democrats to red states if that would be the best way to combat the stupidity that is Washington DC

I wonder what the actual numbers of people who would have to move would be.

would it only take say 10k or 20k in specific states ? or would the number be much much higher ?

I understand that not many people want to live in some of these red states but it seems to be the best way to destroy their "firewall" is from within


Wyoming has a population just north of half a thousand. Relocate one decent-sized city and it wouldn't even be a battleground state.
 
2020-02-13 4:16:15 PM  

LeftisRightisWrong: kindms: I wonder if Mike Bloomberg used his money to help relocate democrats to red states if that would be the best way to combat the stupidity that is Washington DC

I wonder what the actual numbers of people who would have to move would be.

would it only take say 10k or 20k in specific states ? or would the number be much much higher ?

I understand that not many people want to live in some of these red states but it seems to be the best way to destroy their "firewall" is from within

Wyoming has a population just north of half a thousand. Relocate one decent-sized city and it wouldn't even be a battleground state.


err, half a million. Stupid numbers and such
 
2020-02-13 4:16:52 PM  
True Democracy? it's basically a Monarchy.

- Trent England
 
2020-02-13 4:17:16 PM  
The Electoral College was created, in part, as a response to the 3/5th compromise. They didn't want slaves to have too much representation. So no, it had fark all to do with serfdom.
 
2020-02-13 4:17:17 PM  
Greeks enslaved whole masses of rural people, known as helots.

Didn't Americans enslave whole masses of rural people just fine with an electoral college?
 
2020-02-13 4:17:20 PM  

JinxofSpades: oh no not the rural areas...noooo....what will we do without the brain trust that created cow tipping?


Dont knock it until you have tried it.
 
2020-02-13 4:17:38 PM  
Cows and empty land ain't serfs
 
2020-02-13 4:17:49 PM  
I don't know who's worse, those who don't want to get rid of it, or those who do but shoot themselves in the foot with "DURR IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN."
 
2020-02-13 4:18:02 PM  
Can we revisit the senate while we're at it? North Dakota has about 750k people in it, while California has 40 million. Equal representation. That's messed up.
 
2020-02-13 4:18:26 PM  
Look, you assholes. states don't vote. People vote. Why is this so damned hard to understand?
 
2020-02-13 4:18:44 PM  

Saiga410: JinxofSpades: oh no not the rural areas...noooo....what will we do without the brain trust that created cow tipping?

Dont knock it until you have tried it.


It's basically where you go around throwing money at cows.
 
2020-02-13 4:19:26 PM  

40 degree day: Ironically the liberal ideas like universal health care, childhood nutrition, and educational opportunity do at least as much to help the poor Trump voters as anyone else. Try it guys, you'll like it!


Yeah but those ideas would help other people as well. The wrong people. Better to just burn it all down.
 
2020-02-13 4:19:55 PM  

Cagey B: Red states and rural areas already have plenty of serfs. I don't know what else you'd call migrant workers, wage slaves in right-to-work states, and the for-profit prison workforce.

This is why anyone trotting out that "economic anxiety" horseshiat can go piss up a rope. Idiot MAGAs simultaneously heiling their fuhrer's pronouncements of the greatest economy in human history while popping pills to chase away the desperation from not being able to pay the bills on their minimum wage job at the hillbilly mines. What they're truly afraid of, more than anything, is that something will happen where they can't look down on the Mexicans and the blacks anymore. Which is why anything that even hints at minorities somehow being their equals enrages them the most. It's okay to be a serf as long as you're still above the black serfs on the other side of town.


pbs.twimg.comView Full Size

Yep.
 
2020-02-13 4:19:56 PM  
amp.independent.ieView Full Size
 
2020-02-13 4:20:12 PM  

kindms: I wonder if Mike Bloomberg used his money to help relocate democrats to red states if that would be the best way to combat the stupidity that is Washington DC

I wonder what the actual numbers of people who would have to move would be.

would it only take say 10k or 20k in specific states ? or would the number be much much higher ?

I understand that not many people want to live in some of these red states but it seems to be the best way to destroy their "firewall" is from within


I've run that math while bored and daydreaming about what I would do as a billionaire. It's significantly higher than 10s of thousands. You're looking at several communities of 100k+ across a pretty broad geographic area. On top of that, most of the places where you'd need to move people don't have the infrastructure to support them, so you would also need to build out to accommodate them - that means housing, roads and transportation, and most importantly jobs. Even conservatively looking at about $100,000 per person and 100k people, you're looking at $10,000,000,000.

Now, if you were to do this in a slower fashion, with a 10-12 year plan to finish relos, the cost would decrease significantly, as you could move large chunks of your workforce from expensive places to cheap ones and see some significant cost benefits, but then you run into other problems - like figuring out who reliable blue voters are and then somehow ensuring that they actually vote the way you want them to. It's essentially undoable across any reasonable timeframe.
 
2020-02-13 4:20:19 PM  
this isn't an issue you can look to the past for advice on.

In the past the rich elite sat in mansions in cities and 90% of your workers were agriculture minions slaving away out in rural areas.  All the population, and especially the workers were out in the rural areas, being oppressed by their rulers managing everything from their palace cities.

Today its the exact opposite, agriculture is mechanized and done by a tiny number of people.  Meanwhile all the jobs are in the cities which are crowded with the workers and the poor underclass, not the wealthy elite.  The ruler/elite may work in the cities, but they just phone it in.  They live and play out in the rural areas, the beautiful restored green spaces where they have golf courses and beaches and private gated communities.  Those places are no more "cities" than the farmer's field is, but they have somehow convinced him so in order to keep up the old rivalry.
 
2020-02-13 4:21:01 PM  
When the Senate representation and nationwide delegate counts were set, the disparity between the heavily and sparsely populated states was less severe. With that, the balance has shifted well beyond its original effect to give rural voters more and more power.

Maybe you can argue it's not a big enough change yet to call for updated rules, but surely at some point it's not ideal for votes to have such a range of value.
 
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