Steve Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heroic_jawline) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2020-09-17 10:00 am
heroic_jawline) wrote in fandomhigh2020-09-17 10:00 am
Entry tags:
Functioning Governments, Thursday, September 17, 2020
Today the classroom had a visual aid: a map up at the front of the classroom. "In direct democracies," Steve said, "your vote, individually, makes policy choices. This works very well in small settings: PTAs, some towns. It gets unwieldy in a national of 330 million people, which is why in the United States, we elect representatives who are supposed to represent our voices as they vote." He frowned. "Something more than a few have forgotten."
"These are called delegates," Tony added, avoiding looking at that map because it made him want to panic drink after the last time. Just to be safe. "States have a certain number of delegates based on population in order to represent their votes for presidential elections. Hence the less populous states having fewer and the more populous states have many, many more."
Steve nodded. "Every state's electoral delegate count is the number of Senators they have--two, for everyone--plus the number of Representatives they have in the House. And the electoral vote, not the popular vote, is what elects a President. Generally, the electoral vote and the popular vote give you the same result, but not always." Thus Tony looking like he was going to boot all over the classroom.
Look, they had this class for a reason.
"Sometimes there's just enough gerrymandering--which is a method of voter disenfranchisement that re-draws the lines of voting districts into a ridiculous shape in order to have a political party win by cutting off groups likely to vote for the opposing party--there's enough gerrymandering to do just that to make it so the delegates vote one way when the populous voted the other."
"The districts, where each Representative stood for about 200,000 people a hundred years ago, now stand for 700,000 people," Steve said, "so if you live in a highly populated state, like, say, California, your three million extra popular votes didn't translate in the electoral college."
This was depressing. "No other country has followed us down the electoral college road because, frankly, it's confusing and intentionally so, but it's baked into the Constitution and getting rid of it would take an amendment, which requires a massive effort," Steve said.
"So," Tony said with false cheer. "Let's discuss how you feel about this method of governance."
Because your teachers had Some Opinions.
"And then you can play around with the map to see how you can get to 270 votes," Steve said.
"These are called delegates," Tony added, avoiding looking at that map because it made him want to panic drink after the last time. Just to be safe. "States have a certain number of delegates based on population in order to represent their votes for presidential elections. Hence the less populous states having fewer and the more populous states have many, many more."
Steve nodded. "Every state's electoral delegate count is the number of Senators they have--two, for everyone--plus the number of Representatives they have in the House. And the electoral vote, not the popular vote, is what elects a President. Generally, the electoral vote and the popular vote give you the same result, but not always." Thus Tony looking like he was going to boot all over the classroom.
Look, they had this class for a reason.
"Sometimes there's just enough gerrymandering--which is a method of voter disenfranchisement that re-draws the lines of voting districts into a ridiculous shape in order to have a political party win by cutting off groups likely to vote for the opposing party--there's enough gerrymandering to do just that to make it so the delegates vote one way when the populous voted the other."
"The districts, where each Representative stood for about 200,000 people a hundred years ago, now stand for 700,000 people," Steve said, "so if you live in a highly populated state, like, say, California, your three million extra popular votes didn't translate in the electoral college."
This was depressing. "No other country has followed us down the electoral college road because, frankly, it's confusing and intentionally so, but it's baked into the Constitution and getting rid of it would take an amendment, which requires a massive effort," Steve said.
"So," Tony said with false cheer. "Let's discuss how you feel about this method of governance."
Because your teachers had Some Opinions.
"And then you can play around with the map to see how you can get to 270 votes," Steve said.
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