Quote Originally Posted by foxtrot View Post
Agree on the first point, but the electoral college serves a purpose and that is States rights. You run a presidential election first in your State, and then (unless your residents are a moron), the State throws the entire weight of its influence behind the winning candidate. It's not a perfect system, but it strengthens the sovereignty of the States. I'd prefer to see it abolished in favor of something that better serves that purpose (States rights). Don't have any suggestion, but simple majority vote is not exactly it.
I'm just not satisfied with the existing system, whereby the vote I cast is largely irrelevant. Electors aren't even bound by the popular vote in the states they represent, i.e., if 54% of a state's voters vote Republican, there is absolutely nothing preventing that state's electors from casting their votes for the Democrat, other than tradition. I realize that we are not a democracy, and that democracy is in reality a tyranny of the mob, but the current system is too easy to exploit. I'm not sure what the answer is, but the reasoning behind the Electoral College doesn't really hold up in this day and age. Maybe we should vote at the end of a president's single 4 year term: Lifelong pension, or execution. Only taxpayers as defined above are allowed to vote.