A total cynic who generally sees our whole system of politics and governing now being nothing but wrasslin, wants to point out the one thing that's still positive about it.

Every few weeks this pops into my mind.  Has for some time and when it does I've told myself I want to share it with you in a post but never have gotten around to it until now.

It's really such a simple and obvious thing when you think about it.  It doesn't really require anything in the way of knowledge or smarts or even common sense to make this observation or to convey it.
But that doesn't take away from the significance or importance of it.

It's like this.  No matter how fucked up we think our system of governence and politics has now become,  no matter how much it's controlled by money and crookedness and all the rest,  there is still one thing we can be thankful for.
At the end of the day,  the politicians,  their backers,  the "establishment" (of both political parties), and all the other "bad actors" still have to spend more than a year to convince you and me and all the rest of us to give them our vote. 
The bottom line is none of them can get the power they so desire WITHOUT getting our vote.  Because that is still the only way they can get into the Congress or the White House.  They cannot make that happen without getting our vote.
The Milton radio station owner always likes to refer to "Dictator Obama".
That's assinine.  If Obama was a dictator he would simply remain in office after the election like Kim Jung Un or Saddam Hussein or a host of other actual "dictators".  Or he would fix the election to ensure that he's the winner.
But thank god that still doesn't happen here.  These bozos still have to travel the country for over a year and convince us to give them our vote.
And believe me,  if they had the capacity to just grab control of power,  they sure as hell wouldn't be out there wasting their time with a year of campaigning.

That's not to say that no day will ever come when WE (as in you and me)  no longer have that power.  But it's not the case today.  So however fucked up our system has now become,  so far we're still the boss when it comes to which monkety monk is sitting in elected office.

An individual vote (depending on the state) is diminished by the existence of the outdated and unnecessary electoral college.

gatorfan wrote:An individual vote (depending on the state) is diminished by the existence of the outdated and unnecessary electoral college.

Agreed.

If we were to simply fix our election process, our government would look significantly different from how it looks today. This current congress is not even remotely representative of the will of the people.

Once house district gerrymandering is corrected and once the electoral college is done away with, we can effectively say "Goodbye" to the republican party as it exists today. In a world with an efficient election process, republicans will be forced to compete in the arena of policy as opposed to gaming the electoral processes and voter suppression.

gatorfan wrote:An individual vote (depending on the state) is diminished by the existence of the outdated and unnecessary electoral college.

Why do you believe that a dozen or fewer states should run the country with people in smaller states being voiceless?

The 17th Amendment must also be repealed.

I have no problem with the electoral college. A bigger problem is the imbalance in the senate based on small states having incredible influence on this country. Both parties gerrymander, and in Illinois the Democrats have done some incredible gerrymandering so it is not exclusive to one party, and I think if they stay within the law, I support states every ten years drawing their districts.

Our system is working incredibly well, and the electoral college issues would disappear with twenty percent more turn out in general elections. However, there is little which can correct the structural flaws of small western state populations control an incredible block of power in the senate. This is very undemocratic and certainly should have been addressed a hundred years ago as these large geographic states with few citizens joined the union. I do not have an answer for this problem. I do not think a constitutional amendment can fix this because it will require 38 states to ratify.....never happen.

2seaoat wrote:I have no problem with the electoral college.  A bigger problem is the imbalance in the senate based on small states having incredible influence on this country.  Both parties gerrymander, and in Illinois the Democrats have done some incredible gerrymandering so it is not exclusive to one party, and I think if they stay within the law, I support states every ten years drawing their districts.

Our system is working incredibly well, and the electoral college issues would disappear with twenty percent more turn out in general elections.   However, there is little which can correct the structural flaws of small western state populations control an incredible block of power in the senate.   This is very undemocratic and certainly should have been addressed a hundred years ago as these large geographic states with few citizens joined the union.  I do not have an answer for this problem.  I do not think a constitutional amendment can fix this because it will require 38 states to ratify.....never happen.

Which, is a great thing! Do you not have huge power in the House of Representatives?