Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Thanksgiving Talk Prep

VOX Most people are bad at arguing. 
These 2 techniques will make you better.

I think this piece is worth a read, and it aligns with my forth coming DEMs / GOPers discussion.

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good advice.

Molly

Laurie said...

Five Common Misconceptions About the Electoral College

This link is for John, who frequently defends the electoral college.

John said...

Mistake Number 1 is very inconsistent.

Many supporters of the Electoral College assume that the debate about presidential selection at the Constitutional Convention, like the debate today, focused on whether the president should be chosen by the Electoral College or by a nationwide popular vote."

"The difficulty lay in finding an alternative to legislative selection, and the delegates considered and rejected various possibilities, including popular election."

"The point of all this is, the Electoral College did not emerge because of opposition to popular election of the president."

I hope the piece makes more sense sometime.

John said...

Makes sense to me...

"Third, some small-state delegates opposed popular election because they feared that larger states, with their greater voting power, would dominate. Yet these same delegates also objected to the Electoral College, insisting it too gave excessive power to the large states. Their concerns were addressed by stipulating that should no candidate receive a majority of the electoral vote, the selection would devolve on the House of Representatives, with each state casting a single vote."

Small states and low populated states need a say...

John said...

Mistake 3: Similarly, some defenders of the Electoral College have argued that the delegates who favored the Electoral College opposed popular election of the president.

See mistake 1... They did not find popular vote acceptable for many reasons.

John said...

This one is interesting.

Mistake Number 4: Many people also believe that the Electoral College was designed to preserve federalism and states’ rights.

Madison summarized the prevailing sentiment: “The President is to act for the people, not the States.”

I agree that the President is for the people... By this I mean all people, not just those in the cities or on the coasts.

John said...

Laurie,
Sorry... I am still a big fan of region weighted voting...

I want a President who is supported by the people and across the whole country...

Not just those who live in the areas with the highest population density...

You say that you value diversity and the benefits that come with it, however in this case you want to discount and ignore the voices from the heartlands of America. Shame on you... :-)

Anonymous said...

Los Angeles County - Population 9,818,605 - 2 Senators, 18 Representatives (7 of which overlap to other counties)
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Utah - Population 9,877,335 - 14 Senators, 17 Representatives

Why should those people have 7x the representation in the Senate as the people in Los Angeles County?

Land doesn't vote.

Moose

Anonymous said...

"By this I mean all people, not just those in the cities or on the coasts."

Why do you believe a President can't be a President for ALL the people simply because most of his votes came from the cities or coasts?

Moose

Anonymous said...

Furthermore, having a President receive most votes from rural areas hardly guarantees that they will be a President for ALL the people. e.g. The Current Occupant

Moose

Anonymous said...

"You say that you value diversity and the benefits that come with it, however in this case you want to discount and ignore the voices from the heartlands of America."

There is more diversity in many neighborhoods in large cities than in the entire swath of rural America.

Moose

John said...

Moose,
I am fine if Los Angeles wants to secede from the USA... People matter, but so do regions.

As you point out, Presidents tend to cater to that people that voted for them. Even Obama was much more Urban friendly... (ie ACA, LGBT Rights, Lax Borders, Light Rail, etc)

I guess I disagree with you, I think folks in urban areas are very homogenous when it comes to their political and societal views. That is why they vote so strongly Democrat. Where as suburbs are more diverse and therefore battle grounds.

Rural America can vary a lot by community.