Comments on: replacing the electoral college http://www.darknote.org/2008/04/09/replacing-the-electoral-college/ thoughts of a darknote nature Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:10:16 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: darknote http://www.darknote.org/2008/04/09/replacing-the-electoral-college/comment-page-1/#comment-331 darknote Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:08:46 +0000 http://www.darknote.org/2008/04/09/replacing-the-electoral-college/#comment-331 fair enough. and yes, it's a very idealistic sort of idea to have, an avenue to vent my frustrations at what i feel needs to be changed. fun to think about. :) fair enough. and yes, it’s a very idealistic sort of idea to have, an avenue to vent my frustrations at what i feel needs to be changed. fun to think about. :)

]]> By: kaocrat http://www.darknote.org/2008/04/09/replacing-the-electoral-college/comment-page-1/#comment-325 kaocrat Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:14:49 +0000 http://www.darknote.org/2008/04/09/replacing-the-electoral-college/#comment-325 "there’d have to be some guidelines. it can’t just be an isolated measure of intelligence or practical things or awareness of social issues - placing too much emphasis on any of those things individually would influence the presidency too heavily. a balance needs to be struck, determined and governed by a well-picked council." At that point the testing guidelines become more important than voting, and the "well-picked council" inherits the power imbalance currently occupied by the electoral college. And that's without even getting into *who* will get to pick these council members. You idea is superficially appealing, but it doesn't have anything to do with Democracy, less so even than the system we have now. Also, we tried the whole "3/5ths of a person" thing a while back, - didn't work out so well. “there’d have to be some guidelines. it can’t just be an isolated measure of intelligence or practical things or awareness of social issues – placing too much emphasis on any of those things individually would influence the presidency too heavily. a balance needs to be struck, determined and governed by a well-picked council.”

At that point the testing guidelines become more important than voting, and the “well-picked council” inherits the power imbalance currently occupied by the electoral college. And that’s without even getting into *who* will get to pick these council members. You idea is superficially appealing, but it doesn’t have anything to do with Democracy, less so even than the system we have now.

Also, we tried the whole “3/5ths of a person” thing a while back, – didn’t work out so well.

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