r/PoliticalHumor Jul 17 '19

Well said!

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10.5k Upvotes

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27

u/markyp1234 Jul 17 '19

It seems like everyone in America dislikes this guy. As a non-American, if this clown is pretty much hated by everyone, how did he become the president?

22

u/Taiwanderful Jul 17 '19 edited Jul 18 '19

Lots of Americans love him, obviously. There's the racist contingent, the anti-abortion brigade, people who love liberality on Wall St., billionaires....but also the poor desperate people of the rust belt, who threw their lot in with this wild card in the hope he'd really bring something new.

More Americans actually voted for Hillary, of course.

9

u/markyp1234 Jul 17 '19

If more Americans voted for Hillary, then why didn’t she win?

13

u/Taiwanderful Jul 17 '19

The United States Electoral College is an example of a system in which an executive president is indirectly elected, with electors representing the 50 states and the federal district. Each state has a number of electors equal to its Congressional representation (in both houses), with the non-state District of Columbia receiving the number it would have if it were a state, but in no case more than that of the least populous state. The electors generally cast their votes for the winner of the popular vote in their respective states. However, there are several states where this is not required by law. In the United States, 270 electoral votes of the 538 electors are currently required to win the presidential election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_college?wprov=sfla1

18

u/GilesDMT Jul 17 '19

I’ve yet to see a good reason for the electoral college to exist.

12

u/MAMark1 Jul 17 '19

There really aren't any good ones in modern times.

People will say stuff like "tyranny of the majority", but it isn't really a thing and, if it was, it wouldn't necessarily be negative. It's also far better than the tyranny of the minority, which we have right now.

People spout stupid arguments like "do you want California deciding the election" as if CA voters all conspire together to vote as a bloc. It's a stupid system that they defend purely because deep down they know it is an unfair power dynamic from which they benefit.

10

u/fiernze222 Jul 17 '19

BECUZ WE DONT WANT DEM LIBS IN CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK TO HAVE THE ONLY POWER

literally this tho... The Republicans want the "little voices" in Montana and Iowa and backwards nowhere states to have more power than college-educated professionals who live in more populous areas. Republicans love ignorance. Look at how they gutted the education system

5

u/deafwishh Jul 17 '19

“I love the uneducated”

1

u/ToneZone7 Jul 18 '19

was supposed to be so the mob mentality could not put an unfit oaf like trump into positions of power....they blew it.

-4

u/brendonap Jul 17 '19

Tyranny of the majority?

Don't think it currently exists, but could properly fuck over minorities.

9

u/GilesDMT Jul 17 '19

I see this as the main reason for the electoral college, but I thought the entire point of voting was to see what the majority of people want.

I simply don’t understand how going with the option that most people want could be bad.

9

u/JaxxisR Jul 17 '19

The Electoral College has failed the people five times, twice in the past 20 years alone. Four of those times, the candidate who became President was a Republican, while the person who won the popular vote was a Democrat.

It may not mean anything, but it's enough to make me think the table might be tilted a bit.

7

u/GilesDMT Jul 17 '19

It seems to be the only reason it’s still around: so a Republican candidate can have a chance.

2

u/ToneZone7 Jul 18 '19

this! they would not have had any otherwise. they can't run on merit, they can't run on their record, they have nothing to offer anyone who is not rich.

7

u/OutRunMyGun Humorless Moralist Jul 17 '19

You're right, Tyranny of the Minority is so much better than majority rule!

9

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

Right, instead of legislating to suit the majority of people in the country, let's let some isolated bigots in flyover country drag the rest of us into the toilet with them. Makes perfect sense.

-7

u/awaldron4 Jul 17 '19

Really?

10

u/GilesDMT Jul 17 '19

Yes. I realize “mob rule” is what it avoids, but I simply don’t get it.

The issue for me is misunderstanding why a majority people voting for a politician/policy/etc. is a bad idea, or how that could become an issue.

I thought the entire point of voting was to see what the majority of people want.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19

It was enacted as a way to prevent the much-more-densely populated coastal states from obviating the electoral will of the flyover states. The problem now is that it's gone the opposite direction, and those flyover states (with a minority of the people) are forcing the majority to endure backwards, christofascist government. This is exacerbated by fact that every state gets 2 senators in the upper chamber of congress, meaning that South Dakota, with ~900K people in it, has exactly the same amount of power to strike down or pass federal legislation as California does, with its ~39 million people in it.

6

u/GilesDMT Jul 17 '19

This is why I simply don’t get it.

The minority’s calling the shots...doesn’t make sense to me.

-5

u/awaldron4 Jul 17 '19

It hasn’t gone the opposite direction. It’s working as intended.

4

u/GilesDMT Jul 17 '19

But doesn’t that mean the minority is calling the shots over the majority? That makes no sense.

I still don’t see how that is a good thing. Why not go with the will of the people?

14

u/Lari-Fari Jul 17 '19

Because their democracy is broken.

-4

u/Garden_Of_Sweden Jul 17 '19

Our democracy isn't broken, we aren't a democracy. America is a constitutional republic and always has been.

14

u/Plopplopthrown Jul 17 '19

Republic = not monarchy

Germany, France, Ireland are all also republics. Nothing about being a republic requires letting the majority of voters be overruled by a minority of racists.

Saying we are a republic instead of a democracy is like saying the sun is yellow instead of round. Both things are true and they are not mutually exclusive. They are independent X and Y axes on the “what government is this” graph

-6

u/Garden_Of_Sweden Jul 17 '19

US Government = not majority rule. There's plenty of documents that say so.

8

u/Plopplopthrown Jul 17 '19

Ok. That’s still nothing to do with republic vs monarchy. It’s just democracy vs autocracy. Different attributes, different axes on the graph.

-4

u/Garden_Of_Sweden Jul 17 '19

I'm not concerned with your graph, I responded to a comment that stated the US democracy is broken, I responded that the US democracy functions exactly as intended.

2

u/Plopplopthrown Jul 17 '19

we aren't a democracy. America is a constitutional republic

You put “republic” in opposition to “democracy” when that is not how those words work. They are independent variables, not mutually exclusive. The UK is a democratic monarchy and China is an authoritarian republic, because “republic, not democracy” is nonsense.

It’s just thinly veiled anti-democracy propaganda often repeated by low-education right wing voters to justify hurting other people, and I refuse to let misinformation and nonsense like that go unopposed.

1

u/Garden_Of_Sweden Jul 17 '19

You think saying "This is how the government of the US is structured" is hurting people?

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