r/politics • u/ben_watson_jr • May 19 '24

How Can This Country Possibly Be Electing Trump Again? Soft Paywall

https://newrepublic.com/article/181287/can-america-possibly-elect-trump-again
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u/crudedrawer May 19 '24

Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize just how radical very powerful, very rich republicans are at this point. They've controlled the narrative that the left is extreme because of shit like "blue hair" but guys like Alito and Leonard Leo want to entirely reconstruct our government in their image. Thats radical!

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u/Omar_Blitz May 19 '24

Everything is set up by the system to benefit them. Their power is very disproportional. It's easy for them to stay in power and perpetuate the cycle.

Think about it. You can win a state by A SINGLE vote and get all the votes of that state. How is that just and fair? You can get ten million extra votes and it wouldn't matter if they weren't in the "states that matter." Very fucking fair.

Vermont and wyoming have the same power as California and Texas in the senate. How is that democratic? How can you say "One man, one vote" when one vote in this state counts almost a hundred times more than a vote in that state when it comes to the country's highest legislative body?

And the worst thing is, to fix this you need the consent of those who are in power BECAUSE of the broken system. It's like needing the consent of a felon to issue a fine.

It's all fucked in America.

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u/assimilat Tennessee May 19 '24

Amen. The sad honest truth (and im not trying to instigate anything, and I dont condone violence, im just stating a fact) it would unfortunately take a lot of deaths to see any of that change any time soon, but finding a way to end to the electoral college would be the most important step in gaining any sort of meaningful positive reform. (Obviously)

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u/Mundane-Mechanic-547 May 19 '24 edited May 19 '24

The Framers did not want popular vote. It gives rise to Populism, which is a precursor to fascism. (Remember Hitler was voted into power by people who knew what he would do, there was no surprises).

The major issue is gerrymandering. When one party completely dominants a state, there is no chance for the other party to have any say at all. We're basically there in NC. The only thing that is holding them back from absolute power is a democratic gov. And I'm not sure that's going to last. IF the state wasn't gerrymandered to hell and back then all people would equally have some votes in the state. As it is, about 10% of the population controls the votes (because the state is very rural and divided into many districts, most of which are rural).

Maybe you can make the same case for each state itself, but within many states, gerrymandering is a massive issue and completely destroys democracy.

I feel like at the Federal level, we have the House which has proportional represntation (although states like CA get fucked, it's not perfect), and we have the Senate to ensure that minority states have a say. Maybe the Senate should not have so much power. I'm not sure. But the process has worked for 200 years so far.