I think another thing that needs to be thrown out is our Electoral College system. The Presidency needs to be a straight up popular vote, having up to half of a state's votes not count seems to oppose the idea of a democracy.
This is because the United States not a democracy (despite all of the political rhetoric otherwise), we're a constitutional republic. The founding fathers set it up this way for quite specific reasons, mainly because they thought democracies had a tendency to go bad really, really easy.
There are a lot of really compelling reasons for the electoral collage, mainly that it allows all states to get proportional representation in the national election. If you want for a straight up popular vote, the presidential candidates would simply pander to the most populated areas of the country and tailor all of their policies accordingly. Not that it's likely to happen since it would take a constitutional amendment to change it anyway.
I do like the idea of runoff voting, and I am not a fan of the two party system, but I'm guessing that it's so ingrained into our political culture now that it won't ever change.
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Date: 19/4/10 11:11 (UTC)This is because the United States not a democracy (despite all of the political rhetoric otherwise), we're a constitutional republic. The founding fathers set it up this way for quite specific reasons, mainly because they thought democracies had a tendency to go bad really, really easy.
There are a lot of really compelling reasons for the electoral collage, mainly that it allows all states to get proportional representation in the national election. If you want for a straight up popular vote, the presidential candidates would simply pander to the most populated areas of the country and tailor all of their policies accordingly. Not that it's likely to happen since it would take a constitutional amendment to change it anyway.
I do like the idea of runoff voting, and I am not a fan of the two party system, but I'm guessing that it's so ingrained into our political culture now that it won't ever change.