How big of a vote gap would it take for you to drop the Electoral College?

[CJD]

(04-03-2019, 04:40 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: For reasons already stated?  Pure democracy is not a desirable outcome.  If you disagree then ask yourself when the Civil Rights Act would have actually earned a majority of the popular vote.  The answer sure as hell isn't when it was enacted.  How about same sex marriage?  If you brought that up for a popular vote it wouldn't certainly pass today.  The majority can be in favor of some really ugly things and the Framers were well aware of this.  I don't seen any reason to change the current system and plenty of reason to keep it.

I'm sorry. I didn't notice any reasons as I was participating in this discussion. It seemed to be "If you go to popular vote, the rural areas get ignored" but then...rural areas are going to inevitably be ignored. Because there just aren't a lot of votes there (both popular votes and electoral votes). The Democrats have ignored rural areas for ages. The entire center and south of the United States is Red every single election, with only a few exceptions. 

At least the popular vote would make their votes be worth the same as the city dwellers votes, even if it means that politicians wouldn't really campaign there as often. The electoral college vote makes Democratic votes in Red states and Republican votes in Blue states, literally, worthless. Which is an odd way to do an election. The Electoral college takes a nation's worth of votes and reduces them down to 10 states where politicians even bother campaigning seriously.

As for the point on civil rights...I dunno. I wasn't alive during the Civil Rights movement, so I can't say how popular it actually was at the time. I assume it was popular enough to make politicians think they needed to pass the law. 

As for Same Sex Marriage...I'm pretty sure it was insanely popular when it was made legal. Unless I was in some extreme liberal bubble. It didn't even seem to be controversial in my eyes (and the eyes of my social media). Maybe I'm mistaken.

But I'm not saying make every law a popular vote. That's what politicians are for. I'm simply talking about the leader of our Federal government. Trying to extend my hopes for a more democratic system seems like a slippery slope fallacy on your part. Am I mistaking what you're saying?