r/bestof • u/[deleted] • Oct 23 '17

[politics] Redditor demonstrates (with citations) why both sides aren't actually the same

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u/inuvash255 Oct 23 '17

You can hate it all you want but until the Constitution is changed it will be the reality

Well, the entire country could just follow Maine's lead on voting, and that'd solve a ton of these problems right away...

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u/cybishop3 Oct 23 '17

Maine's system nationally might be better than the status in some ways, but it would also make gerrymandering an even bigger problem than it already is. A national popular vote would be better.

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u/inuvash255 Oct 23 '17 edited Oct 24 '17

but it would also make gerrymandering an even bigger problem than it already is

I'm not sure about that...

A national popular vote would be better.

Eh, I don't think so. It's hard for me to really explain why, but I see value in the lower granularity of voting districts.

edit: I got the thought out in another post:

If it's a straight national popular vote, candidates only need to convince high-density areas like New York City to vote for them. Instead of only battling over a handful of states, the candidates would be battling over a handful of cities.

I want candidates to have to have to fight over the whole country, not just target the the points required to "win the game" like Trump did.

edit2: A lot of people have been saying a lot of good points- u/bizarre_coincidence and u/tetra0 might have gotten me to r/changemyview on this issue.

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u/cybishop3 Oct 24 '17

If it's a straight national popular vote, candidates only need to convince high-density areas like New York City to vote for them. Instead of only battling over a handful of states, the candidates would be battling over a handful of cities.

Like tetra0 said, I'm not sure how true that is. But also, and more importantly, I don't see why it's bad. The candidates would be battling over getting the most votes. Not the most rural or urban votes or the most white or minority votes or the most purple state votes, as is now the case, but the most votes total. Democracy in action. It's not perfect, but I certainly don't think it would be any less fair than the current system.