• givesomefucks@lemmy.worldOP
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    3 days ago

    or the electoral college

    That’s the part that’s relevant…

    Whether a state goes 51% of 100%, counts the same.

    This leads to depressed turnout and obviously no elections being on “all Americans”. Most of our votes for president don’t matter because most states go one way or the other.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldOP
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        3 days ago

        That’s not even the worst…

        Our House of representatives is supposed to make up for it, but each rep represents over 20x the people they did when the country was founded.

        The reason we lost so much representation, is the room they occasionally meet in would be too cramped if they kept adding chairs to it.

        But just in general, it’s almost always best to blame political leaders for a government’s actions and not just blame every person living there.

        Good and bad.

        • IronBird@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          the cap on House seats was a deliberate move to restrict the power of cities/progressive forces of the time, it wasnt some accident/short-sightedness

          make it more expensive to campaign (because you have to reach so many more people) and you effectively force out independent canidates

          even if House seats were increased to something sane like 150-200k pop/seat (currently at 800k+, iirc), the senate effectively gives 2/3rds of national political power to 1/3rd of the country. there is no means for the House to completely bypass the Senate

        • It'sbetterwithbutter@lemmus.org
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          2 days ago

          But just in general, it’s almost always best to blame political leaders for a government’s actions and not just blame every person living there.

          Good and bad.

          Agreed, frustration gets to me, considering I come from the Middle East I tend to have very conflicting emotions, having grown up in England I appreciate law and order, equality and an attitude of live and let live. But when my friends and family are in direct danger, my anger rages.

      • Sonicdemon86@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        If they do it right they only need 22% of the popular vote to win the presidentance, so yeah don’t say it is all Americans that want this when such a small number is needed to win.

        • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          You can win with like 2 dozen votes. Not percent. Individual votes. Regardless of how many millions vote for the opposition. Like rounding error above 0% of the popular vote could theoretically “win”. It’s so fucking broken

    • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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      2 days ago

      Whether a state goes 51% of 100%, counts the same.

      While the Electoral college has it’s own major issues. Awarding of the votes is done because 48 State Legislatures believe all the votes should go to the winner. Maine and Nebraska award their vote on a semi-proportional system. A true proportional system would go a long way of addressing some of the major issues such as a someone’s Presidential vote being utterly meaningless. A Republican in California or Democrat in Idaho. (https://electoralvotemap.com/which-states-split-their-electoral-votes/)

      This is the problem when people say “Vote Blue”. Sure voting Democrat/Republican for US House or lower elections does matter, Senate and Presidential elections? If you live in a Red State, a vote for the Senate or President is completely meaningless in having a say of who gets elected.

      Sure, states flip from red to blue and vice versa. However, that only happens if Parties really invest in that state to change it. Parties don’t have unlimited funds, they pay attention to swing states which would have a better return on investment.

      It’s the inherent flaw of first past the post/winner take all style of voting.