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[mainiac]

Except, they have no incentive to change and every incentive to keep it the same.

The effectiveness of the national compact movement gives me some hope.  Basically, a large majority of Americans have supported abolishing the electoral college for decades if not more then a century.  But about 6 years ago, an eccentric millionaire actually decided to put some money behind the idea and so far, 25% of the needed states have signed on and many more have had one of more of their legislative houses pass the compact.  I think there's a decent chance that we'll see the compact accepted nationwide in the next couple decades.
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

So I think the lesson is that electoral reform is possible if the public likes an idea because while there isn't a strong lobby for it, there aren't many people with a strong interest against it either.  I wouldn't consider it impossible that the US would move to a more proportional system, given that nobody left, right or center likes our current system.

[GlyphGryph]

Except, they have no incentive to change and every incentive to keep it the same.

The effectiveness of the national compact movement gives me some hope.  Basically, a large majority of Americans have supported abolishing the electoral college for decades if not more then a century.  But about 6 years ago, an eccentric millionaire actually decided to put some money behind the idea and so far, 25% of the needed states have signed on and many more have had one of more of their legislative houses pass the compact.  I think there's a decent chance that we'll see the compact accepted nationwide in the next couple decades.
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

So I think the lesson is that electoral reform is possible if the public likes an idea because while there isn't a strong lobby for it, there aren't many people with a strong interest against it either.  I wouldn't consider it impossible that the US would move to a more proportional system, given that nobody left, right or center likes our current system.

Except, of course, that this proposal in no way threatens the power structure of the established parties and STILL only has 25% of the needed support. And in my opinion, there's nothing actually WRONG with the electoral college, if it worked the way it was supposed to. But everyone ignores the way it's supposed to work, and the only reason they bother keeping it is to abuse it into giving the "battleground states" more power.

[Phmcw]

Well, at least the rest of the world gets more reliable news sources about USA than americans get.  Acting condescending might make you look dumb.

You have a large amount of experience with news sources all over the world?

And I wasn't being condescending. I was being sarcastic.

You were being 50 years late.
I have access to most of your news sources and the lobbies at work in the US are also at work in the EU and in Belgium (Our capital is also the capital of Europe) so I don't have much more work to do to largely figure out American politics, at least on the large scale.
Beside, America decision are being watched form everywhere in the world and everyone outside of US have usually at least a basic knowledge of how your political system work.
And last but not least, I have a few relative that lived in the US  for a while, so it's yet another way for me to gather information on your country.

[Vigilant]

Except, of course, that this proposal in no way threatens the power structure of the established parties and STILL only has 25% of the needed support. And in my opinion, there's nothing actually WRONG with the electoral college, if it worked the way it was supposed to. But everyone ignores the way it's supposed to work, and the only reason they bother keeping it is to abuse it into giving the "battleground states" more power.

There's everything wrong with the electoral college in that it was never supposed to exist in it's current form in the first place. But don't feel too bad. The mechanism people at the Consitutional Convention wanted for electing the president was pretty dumb too. There was some idea of a body of men of 'exceptional wisdom' that'd get together and elect the president. They also toyed with the idea of Congress electing him. Both of these ideas, and basically everything else proposed, couldn't get a majority vote. In the end they just kinda said 'screw it' and said the president would be elected by electors determined by the states.

From there we had some random state and federal law, and supreme court rulings, that eventually made the system what it is today. It's a hacked together thing, which is why we've repeatedly had craziness due to ties, 'winners' that lost the popular vote, safe states, etc.

[mainiac]

They actually did implement the idea of having Congress decide the president.  That's what the law still says happens if the electoral college doesn't arrive at a majority decision.  The founding fathers didn't expect that the electoral college would always arrive at a majority decision.

We have come pretty close a few times though.  The 1968 election could have gone to the house if Humphrey had just gotten a few more votes in New Jersey and Ohio.

[Urist is dead tome]

You were being 50 years late.
I have access to most of your news sources and the lobbies at work in the US are also at work in the EU and in Belgium (Our capital is also the capital of Europe) so I don't have much more work to do to largely figure out American politics, at least on the large scale.
Beside, America decision are being watched form everywhere in the world and everyone outside of US have usually at least a basic knowledge of how your political system work.
And last but not least, I have a few relative that lived in the US  for a while, so it's yet another way for me to gather information on your country.

Impressive. Worded in a creepy way but impressive nonetheless.

I am never late. Nor am I early. I arrive precisely when I mean to.

[SalmonGod]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Palin parachute into a rally with a giant flag parachute, firing an assault rifle that shoots tiny statues of Jesus riding a bald eagle.

This thread can be closed now.  It's fulfilled its purpose, which was to produce this quote.

[Urist is dead tome]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Palin parachute into a rally with a giant flag parachute, firing an assault rifle that shoots tiny statues of Jesus riding a bald eagle.

This thread can be closed now.  It's fulfilled its purpose, which was to produce this quote.

The prophecy has been fullfilled!

[Sowelu]

Urist..., it's actually really common for other countries to know more about our politics than we do.  Our country is vastly the exception when it comes to not knowing a ton about other countries' internal workings.  That and our news sucks anyway.  Example:  Try following the Middle Eastern + Northern African revolutions in our news...good luck getting accurate news.  Then try Al Jazeera and be amazed.  Next, look at how Al Jazeera is portrayed across all our media:  You would think they were nothing but a terrorist front, because uh...well, I'm pretty sure they've been outright called that by our own politicians.

So yeah.  Other countries often know more about us (and pretty damn near everything else) than we know about ourselves.

[Urist is dead tome]

Urist..., it's actually really common for other countries to know more about our politics than we do.  Our country is vastly the exception when it comes to not knowing a ton about other countries' internal workings.  That and our news sucks anyway.  Example:  Try following the Middle Eastern + Northern African revolutions in our news...good luck getting accurate news.  Then try Al Jazeera and be amazed.  Next, look at how Al Jazeera is portrayed across all our media:  You would think they were nothing but a terrorist front, because uh...well, I'm pretty sure they've been outright called that by our own politicians.

So yeah.  Other countries often know more about us (and pretty damn near everything else) than we know about ourselves.

Here we go again...

You have lots of knowledge about other countries, including the knowledge of the citizens?

[Willfor]

Here we go again...

You have lots of knowledge about other countries, including the knowledge of the citizens?

Due to how American TV saturates the Canadian market, I am more well versed on American law than I am in Canadian law. I am acutely aware of all of the finer points of American politics. I can, at any time of the day, watch any American news station that you can.

And then when I try to link Americans to the Canadian equivalent of Jon Steward, all they get are "this program is blocked in your country" errors. HMM.

[Darvi]

You have lots of knowledge about other countries, including the knowledge of the citizens?

Considering my country has jack o know about, yeah.

[mainiac]

I can't imagine Jon Stewart in another country.  His technique is so apropos to the American flavor of political dysfunction.  It would be like if Monty Python were American.

[Willfor]

This happens to be the Jon Stewart equivalent I was talking about in my last post.

I just meant it in a "making fun of politics and politicians" sense.

[Urist is dead tome]

Here we go again...

You have lots of knowledge about other countries, including the knowledge of the citizens?

Due to how American TV saturates the Canadian market, I am more well versed on American law than I am in Canadian law. I am acutely aware of all of the finer points of American politics. I can, at any time of the day, watch any American news station that you can.

And then when I try to link Americans to the Canadian equivalent of Jon Steward, all they get are "this program is blocked in your country" errors. HMM.

Logically this must mean Canadian TV is no good.