2016 Politics - All The Marbles, Lost

[RJDiogenes]

One comment I've seen elsewhere is that the USA is actually a constitutional Republic rather than Democracy. Not really sure what the difference is...

It means we elect people who do most of our voting for us, rather than voting directly, I'm pretty sure.

Manipulation of public perception by the media?

Access to too much information too quickly?

A small but insidious group manipulating the country for their own personal gain?

All of the above?

Instant access to information probably changes the way elections turn out.

The Independent is claiming the popular vote could go to Clinton by up to 2m votes (not 2.9m as I said earlier - that was a misread on my part) after all Californian votes are counted.

I don't doubt that it's possible. The official tally now has her at 670,913 ahead.

That is an interesting anomaly.

Given the idea that the Culture War is really about the city mice versus the country mice, I wonder if it's about urbanization reaching some critical level.

[Gary]

Bernie Sanders 'deeply humiliated' by Democrats' inability to do this

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday lambasted the Democratic Party for failing to pay attention to white working class voters during the election.

“There needs to be a profound change in the way the Democratic Party does business. It is not good enough to have a liberal elite,” Sanders said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.”

“I come from the white working class and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party can’t talk to the people where I came from,” he added.

Sanders, who ran in the Democratic presidential primary but became an independent again, said that Democrats have to feel the pain of working people, take on the billionaire class, Wall Street and drug companies. He said that Trump tapped into their angst and anger “effectively.”

“We’re going to hold Mr. Trump accountable,” Sanders said.

Asked if he thinks he would have won if he were the Democratic nominee instead of Hillary Clinton, Sanders said, “Hindsight is great, Charlie. I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe, maybe not.”

“She should have won this election by 10 percentage points. The question is why is it that millions of white working class people who voted for Obama turned their backs on the Democratic Party,” Sanders said.

He said that he supports Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, to be the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Sanders said Ellison, who became the first Muslim member of Congress in 2007, will “shake up the Democratic Party.”

Asked if the Electoral College should be abolished given the fact that Clinton is winning the popular vote, Sanders said, “Yeah, I think this is something we should be talking about. I think a campaign for president should not be in 15 states.”

Sanders also left the door open when asked if he plans to run for president again.

“A little bit early to be talking about that,” he said.

The GOP tapped into the Populist nerve and, based on other articles I've seen, their biggest supporters were educated, middle-class workers. Bernie hit the nail on the head.

[Lupine]

Sanders (and most people) tend to give Trump too much credit here. Overall Trump got less votes than McCain or Romney. He didn't win by some populous uprising, he won because Democrats didn't bother to show up at the polls.

[Jim Gamma]

^Except I keep seeing comments about Hillary getting more votes than any candidate ever aside from Obama.

Source is here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 13596.html

Can anyone point to figures to confirm or refute this?

Edit: I found this: http://ropercenter.cornell.edu/polls/us ... ular-vote/

Seems to bear those comments out. 120-125m total across all candidates is becoming the norm this century, I'd say..

[Lupine]

^I think it's a difference between percentages and actual vote numbers.

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, it's all about percentages. The population grows pretty quickly, unfortunately.

It's fascinating to look at some of the numbers in that second link. The total popular vote in 1940 was less than what either of the candidates received individually this year. It's even more fascinating to think what the population was when we got started in 1776-- about 2.5 million. The viewing audience of Agents of SHIELD is double that.

[Gary]

Sanders (and most people) tend to give Trump too much credit here. Overall Trump got less votes than McCain or Romney. He didn't win by some populous uprising, he won because Democrats didn't bother to show up at the polls.

I've pointed that out several times in this discussion. It turns out a lot of people in Oklahoma marked their ballots for almost every item *except* President/Vice-President.

[RJDiogenes]

Very interesting. I had heard that there were a lot of blank ballots this year, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of information online. The first thing that comes up in a Google search is that George and Laura Bush left their ballots blank.

[Gary]

So, a lot of people have been protesting the election (sour grapes) in Oregon. Yesterday's events led to a lot of arrests, so a local Portland TV station took a copy of the list of names of those arrested to the election board to match against voter records. The results: half of those arrested were registered and did not submit a ballot, while the other half weren't registered to vote.

This is my shocked face:

And my reaction:

[RJDiogenes]

What I want to know is, where does the white go when snow melts?

So, a lot of people have been protesting the election (sour grapes) in Oregon. Yesterday's events led to a lot of arrests, so a local Portland TV station took a copy of the list of names of those arrested to the election board to match against voter records. The results: half of those arrested were registered and did not submit a ballot, while the other half weren't registered to vote.

Democracy hinges on the notion that a whole bunch of people are smarter than one person. There's a major flaw in that argument.

[scottydog]

What I want to know is, where does the white go when snow melts?

I've always wanted to know where the colors of the rainbow go when the rainbow disappears.

So, a lot of people have been protesting the election (sour grapes) in Oregon. Yesterday's events led to a lot of arrests, so a local Portland TV station took a copy of the list of names of those arrested to the election board to match against voter records. The results: half of those arrested were registered and did not submit a ballot, while the other half weren't registered to vote.

Democracy hinges on the notion that a whole bunch of people are smarter than one person. There's a major flaw in that argument.

We live in strange times indeed.

[Lupine]

What I want to know is, where does the white go when snow melts?

I've always wanted to know where the colors of the rainbow go when the rainbow disappears.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop?

[RJDiogenes]

42?

[Gary]

Meanwhile, in Canadia: Debating the word 'fart'.

[RJDiogenes]

Is it really too much to ask to have some adults running our governments?