Feeling blue and seeing red?
Next time the news stations post one of those red and blue maps showing which states voted for Bush and which went for Kerry, don't feel so alarmed that almost all of the map is red.
This great site (courtesy U of Mich) shows pictorially, what the country really looks like politically. Of course, if you voted for Bush you won't appreciate this site, since the world is aligned in black and white, red and blue, good and evil.
But for those able to hold more than 2 thoughts in your head at the same time and appreciate a little nuance, this site might be a decent diversion.
As for Fox News, I suspect you'll continue to see the familiar and simple old red/blue map with the bold letters "You Have Chosen" every 30 seconds or so.
15 Comments:
That's a surprisingly helpful link. A little thing like those graphics can really make my day, as silly as that sounds.
and that's why we have a system where we elect the president based on electors from the state so that the most populous areas do not control the election. Do the 5million votes of NYC count more than the 5million of several states? we are set up as 50 small nations with equal voices...we are not a democracy, we are a constitutional republic. in a republic, people elect representatives who in turn elect and vote on issues for them. in a democracy, a true democracy, simple majority wins all the time. this system was created with enough foresight so that populous cities would not outweigh the voice of the states. so people can look at popular vote and cry all they want but until someone amends or rewrites the constitution this is what we have. to tell the truth, no matter which way it goes, i would not want the most populous states dictating what goes on.
the problem with the electoral college is that wide swaths of the country get ignored completely in presidential elections. the president is determined by a handful of states. texas and california end up ignored, while new mexico is swamped with campaign visits and ads. does this make sense?
as usual, i dont have any better ideas, other than to say that less populous states are already over-represented in the senate. so dont feel too badly for them.
i don't have any better ones either. read the evolution of the electoratl college on msn encarta online and the same debates of how to choose the president now are the same ones in 1790. this is the system they came up with. our only other viable option is take the people out of it and let them vote for congressmen who in turn will elect the president, much like canada does.
im not a fan of heading towards a parliamentary style government. im a huge proponent of gridlock and prefer that the president not be closely aligned with congress. of course, that's a large part of my problem with bush and the congressional republicans right now. congress has lost its focus.
well i agree - but i do not want a popular election of president...for some reason i feel that it would cause more problems down the road. i can see it now, cities that are heavily rep/dem will have the opposite party courting business as workers to offset the population. voter apathy will be at an all time high when the population of kansas for example just gives up. in our homogeneous society today, the electoral college is more important than ever.
so your opinion is that "one person = one vote" would discourage people in smaller states from voting?
are you saying that people in kansas only vote today because their vote is somehow worth more than folks in cities? even if this made sense, i dont see why we should continue along that path.
one person = one vote would discourage people in smaller states b/c of repeated loss of their candidate. for example if every year they knew that the state of ny and CA along with the cities of dallas, houston, philly, detroit, chicago, and miami, etc. would outweigh the rest of the country's vote, one would be discouraged.
you are entitled to that opinion. but my opinion is that:
#1. what you are saying just isnt true
#2. even if it IS true, who cares? if you cant bother to vote, dont vote. plain and simple. dont ask me to design the system such that it is less than optimal just so people in small states dont get their feelings hurt. one person = one vote is as fair as it gets.
The Electoral College, in recognizing a role for states in the selection of the president, reminds us of their importance in our federal system. We have strayed from a republic of states to a homogeneous democracy, which is not what was intended. We must remember the states rights! We should also disallow the direct election of Senators and go back to the states congress' to nominate and elect Senators. Also, the Electoral College encourages more person-to-person campaigning by candidates, as they spend time in both the big cities and smaller cities in battleground states. If we left it to a direct election, only the most populous cities/states would be focused on, leading to voter apathy. In close, contested elections, recounts will usually be confined to a state or two, rather than an across-the-country recount that might be required if we had direct election of the president. The Electoral College, with its typical winner-take-all allocation of votes, often turns a small percentage margin of victory into one that appears much larger, thus making the victory seem more conclusive.
There are pros and cons to both. But for the reasons above, we need the Electoral College.
your argument has validity...in 1789. but the role of the federal government today is much different than it was when the electoral college was created.
today, i doubt anyone thinks of the united states as a collection of nation-states. but they did think that way in 1789. if you are arguing that we should return to that model, then thats a different discussion altogether.
i think todays realities (ie incredibly strong federal government, relatively weak state government) make the electoral college much less relevant and practical.
are you arguing that its important to have the illusion of conclusive victory that the electoral college sometimes provides? that argument boggles.
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