Originally posted by lazs2
It appears that ,barring something really dramatic.... Bush will win with a pretty handy electorial advantage. I think that the Americans here will take a victory by either candidate in (more or less) stride but... I think the foriegn posters will feel.... betrayed and it will simply increase their hate for the U.S.
lazs
And furthermore heres is a copy paste on the electrol college. As you can see, its obsolete as the British and no longer a threat.
copy-paste
What is the Electoral College?
The electoral college is a system set up by the framers of the Constitution in Article 2, Section 1, and then altered by the 12th Amendment. It assigns a certain number of electoral votes to each state (and Washington, D.C.) for the purpose of determining presidential elections. The number of assigned electorates equals the number of congressmen where one vote is given for each House member and two votes for two Senators.
Why the Electoral College?
To understand the need for the Electoral College, you have to understand the foundation of the United States in the first place. Notice that the country is named the "United States", not the "United People". Independent sovereign states (nations) once inhabited this land. They had their own independent governments. They had militaries which defended their borders. They had foreign ambassadors sent to other countries to establish regular treaties, just as independent nations do today.
Going back to the American Revolution, at that time, there were 13 colonies under British control. These 13 colonies did not want to remain under the control of the King of England, so they basically "teamed up" and declared their independence from England. A war ensued and their defeat of England won their independence outright. But the colonial governments knew that this was not permanent. They knew that England would one day come to regain control over the rich, fertile colonies in the New World. The colonies knew that the only way to thwart such an attack in the future was to start building strong alliances with each other in the present. Over the next 10+ years after the war, the colonies explored different ways of strong unions that would not only guard against future invasions by Mexico, France, and England, but would be strong enough to discourage those invasions in the first place. Hence, the conclusion was that a permanent union needed to be formed, a union of independent sovereign states with a centralized limited government that could call on the states to defend each other in the future when necessary. Legal documents would be needed to establish such a union, something that required the leaders of all states to sign and be bound to. The Constitution was born and so was the United States.
Shouldn't a presidential election be determined by a popular vote in a democracy?
Yes. But we don't live in a democracy. We live in a federation/republic. The best example of this is the U.S. Congress. The Congress is divided into two houses. The House of Representatives was created as a representation of the will of the people, giving each equally populated block of citizens a single representation with equal power. The Senate, on the other hand, which is more powerful, is not a representation of the people, but a representation of the states (state governments, if you will). In the Senate, each state has exactly two representatives, giving EVERY state equal power. The Senate was created to encourage those very small states to enter the Union. Otherwise, it would not be logical for states with tiny populations (relative to the U.S. population) to enter into a true representative Union as they would be relinquishing their own sovereign power over themselves by doing so.
When thinking about government decisions, it sometimes helps to relate them to your own personal situation. Think about moving into a new apartment versus living alone. Let's assume that you have lived alone for several years and have somewhat enjoyed the freedom with running your apartment the way you see fit. Now let's assume that you have agreed to move into a 5-bedroom apartment with four of your friends. Is the new apartment going to be run exactly the way you see fit? Are you going to get the shower for as long as you want anytime you wanted as you did when living alone? Of course not. But there is the security factor. Most of us feel much more secure when living with others than living alone. This is very similar to a state's decision to enter the United States. They have much more power as an independent nation that they would relinquish when joining the Union, but the Union offers a certain level of security that they could not have had otherwise. But that security could also be emulated by simple alliances with the United States (i.e. Puerto Rico, Guam), and if such security could be achieved without acceding the United States, it would be very foolish to join. This is exactly why Puerto Rico and Guam are not U.S. states. They CHOOSE not to be. This is very confusing to those American citizens who've been brainwashed into believing that the United States is a perfect union that no sensible nation could resist. Puerto Ricans aren't stupid. They like their independence. Now they have managed to do the genius thing of maintaining independence while creating an alliance with the most powerful nation on Earth that would certainly defend you if you have run into any problems. In Puerto Rico's case, they are having their cake and eating it too.
