Reply #27: the EC is the problem [View All]

Marianne wrote: "No the real problem was that the SCOTUS took the case over the Florida Supreme Court and essentially nullified that body. Florida and Katherine Harris and her role deserve all the blame."

Here's where your logic fails: Kate Harris, hanging chads, the GOP goon squad, the USSC... were ONLY factors because of the anti-democratic method we use for electing a president. It gave the vote of one US citizen in Bush's Florida 1000X the weight of a US citizen who voted in Gores national lead. The EC is a vote weighing scheme.

NONE of those who you blame would even been factors in the 2000 election if we had a morally legitimate method of electing a president. By that I mean a popular vote with a run-off system that guaranteed that the winner get 50%+ of the vote.

"We cannot go on "what ifs" that are totally divorced from what really happened. That is really poor logic and a straw man. We do have facts with which we can argue the case and there is no need for "what ifs"
What ifs are good propositions for metaphysical propositions but not when there are actual facts present with which to argue your case."

This is NOT a case of "what if". It's simply a plea for Democratic and Progressives to identify the REAL culprit in the 2000 election. If you can't identify the real problem you'll never push for real solution. A true DEMOCRATIC VOTE is the cure.... not keeping your head in the sand hoping some minor tweak of an anti-democratic and dysfunctional system will fix it. The EC, is by the democratic principles we SHOULD hold dear.... morally irredeemable. Such vote weighing schemes are ILLEGAL on all other levels of government. See Renyolds v Sims http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=377&invol=533

BTW... you avoided my point: "The fallacy of your logic can be seen with this example. What if Bush had a CLEAR 20,000 vote victory in Florida. No recount would have been done... the USSC would not have gotten involved. The EC installs Bush the winner even though he LOST to Gore by 530,000 votes nationally.

What would you think then? Would you FINALLY see it's the Electoral College that's the real problem?"