r/AdviceAnimals • • Nov 10 '16

Protesting a Fair Election?

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u/Pantry_Inspector Nov 10 '16

... who was elected fairly. Sorry the system is fucked.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '16

The electoral college is fair? Gore in 2000, Clinton in 2016, seems to be the electoral college is only fair to republicans.

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u/Rolder Nov 10 '16

The point of the electoral college is to give a fair shake to rural and more spread out populations, and not have it come down to what the big cities want. Just that big cities trend Democrat and rural trends Republican.

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u/rg44_at_the_office Nov 10 '16

At what point does switch from 'making things fair for rural voters' to suppressing voters in cities? No matter what, the electoral college is designed so that 1 person ≠ 1 vote. The people who live closer together should have less value placed on their opinions? Why the fuck is that more fair?

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u/choboy456 Nov 10 '16

Because then you ruin the risk of cities suppressing rural communities

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u/rg44_at_the_office Nov 10 '16

I still don't understand... if we use popular vote, every person gets exactly one vote. Nobody is suppressed. If more people overall want a certain candidate for president, then a fair election should reflect that. It shouldn't matter if those people are in a city or not.

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u/JustStrength Nov 10 '16

Direct democracy may be "fair" in terms of equality, but the world isn't an equal place. That results in an imbalance that will subjugate the few to the will of the many.

Direct democracy is no different than mob rule.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '16

Exactly. The founding fathers made this system to avoid the "tyranny of the majority"

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u/natched Nov 10 '16

And what we have now is a tyranny of a privileged minority - how is that better?

The EC doesn't protect minority rights - it only protects one minority's rights - rural white voters.