Intro from New Member

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by bryan

Thanks RickeyM. I am an occasional lurker on AK, so I'm familiar with the site and heard about this sister site from there. I recognize some of the names from there, but not all.

Glad to be here and thanks for the welcome!

Welcome, Bryan! BTW, I'm Robroy on AK.

Like you, I went from party affiliation to independent, except I was Republican.

BTW, I noticed you mentioned the concept of "winner take all". I just thought I'd point out that all democratic elections are "winner take all". The selection of a president is only democratic in how each state chooses which candidate it will support. After that, the fifty states choose, "democratically" through their representatives (the electors) which candidate their state will vote for. The weight of their vote depends on the population of their state (number of congressmen) plus two more (matching two senators). It is why we are called a republic.

And if we elected a president today based on the popular vote, three counties would pretty much select our president. LA, COOK (Illinois) and New York.

That being said, I very much enjoyed your rundown and we are in agreement about a lot of political concepts from a foundational perspective. I get a lot of grief from the children here, but it can be a lot of fun.

I have a feeling you'll see/experience it first hand.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Not Insane

BTW, I noticed you mentioned the concept of "winner take all". I just thought I'd point out that all democratic elections are "winner take all".

All democratic elections are not 'winner take all' when proportional representation is employed.

Originally Posted by Not Insane

And if we elected a president today based on the popular vote, three counties would pretty much select our president. LA, COOK (Illinois) and New York.

What is your point? That dirt and rocks deserve representation? The schemes that give extra representation to dirt and rocks, of course, actually give extra representation to those that own lots of dirt and rocks. The Senate is systemic oligarchy.

[bryan]

Originally Posted by Not Insane

Welcome, Bryan! BTW, I'm Robroy on AK.

Like you, I went from party affiliation to independent, except I was Republican.

BTW, I noticed you mentioned the concept of "winner take all". I just thought I'd point out that all democratic elections are "winner take all". The selection of a president is only democratic in how each state chooses which candidate it will support. After that, the fifty states choose, "democratically" through their representatives (the electors) which candidate their state will vote for. The weight of their vote depends on the population of their state (number of congressmen) plus two more (matching two senators). It is why we are called a republic.

And if we elected a president today based on the popular vote, three counties would pretty much select our president. LA, COOK (Illinois) and New York.

That being said, I very much enjoyed your rundown and we are in agreement about a lot of political concepts from a foundational perspective. I get a lot of grief from the children here, but it can be a lot of fun.

I have a feeling you'll see/experience it first hand.

Thanks for the welcome. I'm still trying to digest your comment on why those three counties would select our President, but I felt this was a debate that others might want to participate in and having it within an intro thread wasn't really the right place for it.

If you're inclined, please join that thread and let's continue the discussion there.

Here's the new thread:

http://www.politicalchat.org/showthr...251#post393251