Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

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Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by Col Hogan »

Should rural and small-town Americans be reduced to serfdom? The American Founders didn’t think so. This is one reason why they created checks and balances, including the Electoral College. Today that system is threatened by a proposal called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, or NPV.

Rural America produces almost all our country’s food, as well as raw materials like metals, cotton and timber. Energy, fossil fuels but also alternatives like wind and solar come mostly from rural areas. In other words, the material inputs of modern life flow out of rural communities and into cities.

This is fine, so long as the exchange is voluntary — rural people choose to sell their goods and services, receive a fair price, and have their freedom protected under law. But history shows that city dwellers have a nasty habit of taking advantage of their country cousins. Greeks enslaved whole masses of rural people, known as helots. Medieval Europe had feudalism. The Russians had their serfs.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 770424002/

We’ve recently seen calls for women to withhold sex until men vote properly...Slate recently proposed that millennials not have kids or keep their kids from seeing their grandparents until the grandparents agree to vote “properly”...

I say maybe rural Americans should withhold their products and services to their city cousins until they agree to honor the Constitution as written and stop this foolishness of messing with the Electoral College...

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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by css75 »

Good article.


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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by 89Hen »

Dems don't care.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by Gil Dobie »

The best analogy I've heard, without the electoral college, the small states would be like a lamb voting with 2 wolves on what's for lunch.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by mainejeff »

You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.

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Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by SeattleGriz »

mainejeff wrote:You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.

:coffee:
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Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by AZGrizFan »

SeattleGriz wrote:
mainejeff wrote:You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.

:coffee:
It's only a small step from killing babies to men.
:coffee:
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by kalm »

Col Hogan wrote:
Should rural and small-town Americans be reduced to serfdom? The American Founders didn’t think so. This is one reason why they created checks and balances, including the Electoral College. Today that system is threatened by a proposal called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, or NPV.

Rural America produces almost all our country’s food, as well as raw materials like metals, cotton and timber. Energy, fossil fuels but also alternatives like wind and solar come mostly from rural areas. In other words, the material inputs of modern life flow out of rural communities and into cities.

This is fine, so long as the exchange is voluntary — rural people choose to sell their goods and services, receive a fair price, and have their freedom protected under law. But history shows that city dwellers have a nasty habit of taking advantage of their country cousins. Greeks enslaved whole masses of rural people, known as helots. Medieval Europe had feudalism. The Russians had their serfs.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 770424002/

We’ve recently seen calls for women to withhold sex until men vote properly...Slate recently proposed that millennials not have kids or keep their kids from seeing their grandparents until the grandparents agree to vote “properly”...

I say maybe rural Americans should withhold their products and services to their city cousins until they agree to honor the Constitution as written and stop this foolishness of messing with the Electoral College...

:coffee:
Yeah...they should just close up shop. :lol:

This would carry a lot more weight in the freedom department if ag wasn't so heavily subsidized and corporatized.

I honestly don't mind the electoral college that much but why not just grant every legislative district one electoral vote? There's a crap ton of ag and mining in the rural areas of Washington, Oregon, and California. Their votes should count for more too.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by Vidav »

Gil Dobie wrote:The best analogy I've heard, without the electoral college, the small states would be like a lamb voting with 2 wolves on what's for lunch.
But with the electoral college my vote for president in Montana never matters. We get 3 votes. That wont swing anything, ever.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by JohnStOnge »

A bunch of nonsense in today's context. Each vote should indeed count equally.

As I said in another thread: The design of the Electoral College is one in which the idea was that each State would pick smart people then those smart people would pick a President. That is NOT what is happening nowadays. If there was ever an argument for the Electoral College system it was lost when we started having popular votes in the States then having each State's Electors bound to vote for whoever the popular vote in their State chose.

The article is basically an argument that each rural person should have their vote count for more than each "city" person's vote. That's not really defensible.

The idea of saying rural Americans would be serfs is ridiculous too. Nobody is forced to live in a rural area. Nobody is forced to be a farmer. Etc. If you produce a needed product there are certain market realities. To compare abolishing the Electoral College to making people who live in rural areas "serfs" is absurd.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by JohnStOnge »

It'll be interesting to see how all the Republicans now extolling the value of the Electoral College because it allowed them to win two elections in 2000 and 2016 when they lost the popular vote will respond when Texas and Florida evolve into being in the "Blue" column. When that happens it'll be pretty much a hopeless situation for Republicans. Then the four largest population States will have ALL their Electoral votes go to the Democrat. It won't matter if the Republicans get 30% of the vote in any one of those States for 40%. Or 49%. It'll be winner take all.

It's going to happen. And it'll be interesting to see what Republicans think of the Electoral College when it does.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by AZGrizFan »

JohnStOnge wrote:It'll be interesting to see how all the Republicans now extolling the value of the Electoral College because it allowed them to win two elections in 2000 and 2016 when they lost the popular vote will respond when Texas and Florida evolve into being in the "Blue" column. When that happens it'll be pretty much a hopeless situation for Republicans. Then the four largest population States will have ALL their Electoral votes go to the Democrat. It won't matter if the Republicans get 30% of the vote in any one of those States for 40%. Or 49%. It'll be winner take all.

It's going to happen. And it'll be interesting to see what Republicans think of the Electoral College when it does.
well if its so certain to happen you should be ecstatic that we still have the system in place then.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

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JohnStOnge wrote:It'll be interesting to see how all the Republicans now extolling the value of the Electoral College because it allowed them to win two elections in 2000 and 2016 when they lost the popular vote will respond when Texas and Florida evolve into being in the "Blue" column. When that happens it'll be pretty much a hopeless situation for Republicans. Then the four largest population States will have ALL their Electoral votes go to the Democrat. It won't matter if the Republicans get 30% of the vote in any one of those States for 40%. Or 49%. It'll be winner take all.

It's going to happen. And it'll be interesting to see what Republicans think of the Electoral College when it does.
They can do what you should do:

Amend the Constitution or STFU


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Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by ALPHAGRIZ1 »

mainejeff wrote:You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.

:coffee:
Go fuck yourself

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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by BDKJMU »

JohnStOnge wrote:It'll be interesting to see how all the Republicans now extolling the value of the Electoral College because it allowed them to win two elections in 2000 and 2016 when they lost the popular vote will respond when Texas and Florida evolve into being in the "Blue" column. When that happens it'll be pretty much a hopeless situation for Republicans. Then the four largest population States will have ALL their Electoral votes go to the Democrat. It won't matter if the Republicans get 30% of the vote in any one of those States for 40%. Or 49%. It'll be winner take all.

It's going to happen. And it'll be interesting to see what Republicans think of the Electoral College when it does.
Already been there. Done that. TX & FL were blue. Then they went red. They could go blue again. Then red again. Then blue again. Then red again. And other states that are red could go blue. And other states that are blue could go red. Just look at the last 230 years. Things change Every generation the electoral map looks different.
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Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by mainejeff »

SeattleGriz wrote:
mainejeff wrote:You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.

:coffee:
It's only a small step from killing babies to men.
It's only a small step from Trump to Hitler.

Happy Memorial Day!

:coffee:
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by Gil Dobie »

JohnStOnge wrote:A bunch of nonsense in today's context. Each vote should indeed count equally.

As I said in another thread: The design of the Electoral College is one in which the idea was that each State would pick smart people then those smart people would pick a President. That is NOT what is happening nowadays. If there was ever an argument for the Electoral College system it was lost when we started having popular votes in the States then having each State's Electors bound to vote for whoever the popular vote in their State chose.

The article is basically an argument that each rural person should have their vote count for more than each "city" person's vote. That's not really defensible.

The idea of saying rural Americans would be serfs is ridiculous too. Nobody is forced to live in a rural area. Nobody is forced to be a farmer. Etc. If you produce a needed product there are certain market realities. To compare abolishing the Electoral College to making people who live in rural areas "serfs" is absurd.
I would look at the nomination process, giving us 2 POS from the dominant political parties. If you voted for either one of them, the electoral college is not your problem.
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Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by mainejeff »

JohnStOnge wrote:It'll be interesting to see how all the Republicans now extolling the value of the Electoral College because it allowed them to win two elections in 2000 and 2016 when they lost the popular vote will respond when Texas and Florida evolve into being in the "Blue" column. When that happens it'll be pretty much a hopeless situation for Republicans. Then the four largest population States will have ALL their Electoral votes go to the Democrat. It won't matter if the Republicans get 30% of the vote in any one of those States for 40%. Or 49%. It'll be winner take all.

It's going to happen. And it'll be interesting to see what Republicans think of the Electoral College when it does.
Amen John! But as we know.....Republicans are masters of manipulation. They will indeed find a way to stay in the game. :nod:

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Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by UNI88 »

mainejeff wrote:
SeattleGriz wrote:It's only a small step from killing babies to men.
It's only a small step from Trump to Hitler.

Happy Memorial Day!

:coffee:
And it's an even smaller step from Bernie, Warren, Harris, etc. to Stalin.

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Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by mainejeff »

ALPHAGRIZ1 wrote:
mainejeff wrote:You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.

:coffee:
Go fuck yourself

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Blah blah blah......get bent motherfucker.

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Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by mainejeff »

UNI88 wrote:
mainejeff wrote:
It's only a small step from Trump to Hitler.

Happy Memorial Day!

:coffee:
And it's an even smaller step from Bernie, Warren, Harris, etc. to Stalin.

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Nope. It's easier to get people to hate than it is to overhaul our entire economy.

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Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

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mainejeff wrote:
UNI88 wrote:And it's an even smaller step from Bernie, Warren, Harris, etc. to Stalin.

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Nope. It's easier to get people to hate than it is to overhaul our entire economy.

:coffee:
Stalin (and Mao) were even better than Hitler at hate and destruction. And they didn't overhaul economies they decimated them.

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Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

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mainejeff wrote:
UNI88 wrote:And it's an even smaller step from Bernie, Warren, Harris, etc. to Stalin.

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Nope. It's easier to get people to hate than it is to overhaul our entire economy.

:coffee:
...and the Left is so full of hate right now. It's a shame, really.
mainejeff wrote:You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.
:ohno:
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Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by Pwns »

mainejeff wrote:You guys are a bunch of paranoid fucktards.

:coffee:
mainejeff wrote:
It's only a small step from Trump to Hitler.

Happy Memorial Day!

:coffee:
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Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College

Post by Gil Dobie »

mainejeff wrote:
UNI88 wrote:And it's an even smaller step from Bernie, Warren, Harris, etc. to Stalin.

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Nope. It's easier to get people to hate than it is to overhaul our entire economy.

:coffee:
Is Hitler or Stalin win with an electoral college vote?

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