[Magdalen] Stupid question

[Eleanor Braun]

Of course for the general election for president, there is the
constitutional provision for the (outdated, stupid, undemocratic) Electoral
College.  It's not necessarily a good reason, but it's the only one that
matters until changed.

In the primaries, oh such a different question.  One of the most important
parts of our whole process is not mentioned in the constitution -- the
political parties.  You might check out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_primary

and
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/05/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-the-presidential-primary-works/

The parties are private organizations, which choose to have national
conventions.  They can set their own rules.  One rule that has to be
figured out:  plurality or majority.  Mr. Trump will probably go in with a
plurality of votes cast but a majority of delegates.  If there are many
candidates who do well and no one has a majority, you have to have a system
of sorting out who is going to get the nomination.  It's complicated.  And
the discussion now about all these Republicans who will not go to the
convention or will not support Trump shows one of the major stressors.

Your suggestion for "pure democracy" raises a red flag for me -- it opens
the door for a demagogue like Trump to become president.

Eleanor

On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 11:05 AM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I feel very ignorant in asking this, but I wonder if someone can explain
> to me--or point me to a source--why we don't elect by popular vote?  Why
> can't they just add up all the votes in the primaries and declare the
> winners in each party based on the totals?
> Then do the same with the general election--the one with the most votes
> wins. Then you wouldn't have the ridiculous situation we had with
> Bush-Gore.  And wouldn't that be likely to bring out more voters, since
> they would feel their vote actually counted?
>
> I'm sure there is some historical reason, and it may even be a good one,
> but I don't know what it is...
>