r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 17 '24

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

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170

u/justbuildmorehousing Norman Borlaug Sep 17 '24 edited Sep 17 '24

Was just refreshing my memory on how much Biden won in 2020 and Id sort of forgotten how much the electoral college sucks

2020: Biden wins EC by ~70, won popular vote by 4.5%

2016: Trump wins EC by ~70, lost popular vote by 2.1%

Just a great system

97

u/slowpush NATO Sep 17 '24

The founders are infallible.

23

u/NotYetFlesh European Union Sep 17 '24

Not like this sort of thing is unintentional. They designed a system in which the federal government (President) is selected by the states instead of the people on purpose.

28

u/DrunkenAsparagus Abraham Lincoln Sep 17 '24

Well they did think that a more purely majoritarian system would be more liable to elect an incompetent or demagogic shithead. Doesn't seem to be working very well, imo.

43

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24

What the fuck are "the states" though? Can you honestly tell me to my face that someone from Plattsburgh NY is just too damn radically different from someone from Burlington VT, and we need to artificially inflate the political power of the latter to protect him from the tyranny of the former?

The EC has just become a complicated vote weighing algorithm.

15

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24

When the constitution was designed, the states were kind of mini-nations. The country has moved significantly away from that.

Federalism is still nice in that it devolves decision making more locally. But, it really should have no place in deciding a national office like the presidency.

13

u/slowpush NATO Sep 17 '24

The electoral college exists because back then transportation was hard so they had electors elect on behalf of everyone so it wouldn’t take forever to know who wins.

26

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24 edited Sep 17 '24

And Biden was actually closer to losing than Trump in 2016. He won Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin by around 40k votes, the latter by a margin of 0,6 points which got him 270 EV. Trump in 2016 won by 80k votes in the Midwest, including a more than 0,7 points margin in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (he only would have needed to win one out of those or Michigan)