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This "debate" has one clear winner: Candy Crowley, she made an awesome job.
As a German/european i cannot believe that this is such a close race, i mean you have a Nobel Peace Prize winner on one side and a "well i´m rich so i know how to make a good economy" on the other side. In most of the democratic countries in the western world they would get destroyed for all the half - truth they tell all the time.
Besides i have a question to the Americans:
How the hell can you accept an election system like this? I mean you vote for some guy that votes for you the president, but it doesn´t matters for the most because only a handful of states really matters and in these states if it´s 51% to 49% the winner takes it all. And well you can win with less votes.
Am i missing something? Because in my opinion thats ridiculously stupid.
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On October 17 2012 21:31 USvBleakill wrote:
This "debate" has one clear winner: Candy Crowley, she made an awesome job.
As a German/european i cannot believe that this is such a close race, i mean you have a Nobel Peace Prize winner on one side and a "well i´m rich so i know how to make a good economy" on the other side. In most of the democratic countries in the western world they would get destroyed for all the half - truth they tell all the time.
Besides i have a question to the Americans:
How the hell can you accept an election system like this? I mean you vote for some guy that votes for you the president, but it doesn´t matters for the most because only a handful of states really matters and in these states if it´s 51% to 49% the winner takes it all. And well you can win with less votes.
Am i missing something? Because in my opinion thats ridiculously stupid.
Yes, the electoral college makes no sense to me either.
What ends up happening is that states which are closely contested end up receiving disproportionate amounts of federal aid over time, as that state becomes politically important no matter which party holds power. This fucks with everything from US agricultural policy (hello Iowa corn farmers!) to US policy towards Cuba (the Cuban emigre vote in Florida), as small clumps of voters in certain states wind up with outsized impacts on national politics.
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On October 17 2012 21:31 USvBleakill wrote:
Besides i have a question to the Americans:
How the hell can you accept an election system like this? I mean you vote for some guy that votes for you the president, but it doesn´t matters for the most because only a handful of states really matters and in these states if it´s 51% to 49% the winner takes it all. And well you can win with less votes.
Am i missing something? Because in my opinion thats ridiculously stupid.
Well, when the US was founded several hundred years ago, the electoral college was a great idea to give some representation to the smaller states, like Rhode Island and Delaware, so the larger states, such as Virginia, couldn't just vote in whomever they pleased. Of note, four of our first five presidents were from, Virginia, so take that as you will.
Nowadays, since the system is entrenched, no one's going to either harm themselves by outing the system or be a martyr and commit political suicide and attempt to get a bunch of other people to commit political suicide to remove it.
I feel bad for the poor bastards who played any debate drinking game with "take a shot every time Romney uses a list of points in an answer."
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It´s just hard to understand how the republics gets away with so many things. If Angela Merkel (btw. she is very popular in germany at the moment and will most likely "win" the next election with her party) would say "i don´t care about 47% of the germans because they dont pay taxes and dont vote me" she would be political dead in a day.
And 95% of the debate are just about Economy and jobs. Arab Spring, Nukes at Iran, € Euro crisis, Global Warming (!!!) bahhh who cares i give you more Jobs with reducing the taxes for rich people wuhuu.
i´m sorry i don´t want to insult somebody but americans looking a little "dumb" in politics.
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TL:DR
You're missing that the electoral college is functionally unchangeable. It's bad, but nothing can be done because of the power of small and/or swing states to stop any amendment removing it.
I know what you mean, in any democratic process it´s tough to change things that are this "old".
Everyone i asked (i have some friends in NY) says "well most of the US hates the elecetion college and want it to be changed" but, i never never read something like "5.000 students protest against the... 20.000 Texan Democratic Party member protest against the election college because their votes are meaningless...".
Is this a mentality thing or is there just no report by german speaking newspapers?
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On October 17 2012 23:27 USvBleakill wrote:
It´s just hard to understand how the republics gets away with so many things. If Angela Merkel (btw. she is very popular in germany at the moment and will most likely "win" the next election with her party) would say "i don´t care about 47% of the germans because they dont pay taxes and dont vote me" she would be political dead in a day.
And 95% of the debate are just about Economy and jobs. Arab Spring, Nukes at Iran, € Euro crisis, Global Warming (!!!) bahhh who cares i give you more Jobs with reducing the taxes for rich people wuhuu.
i´m sorry i don´t want to insult somebody but americans looking a little "dumb" in politics.
To be honest, in Europe at least, american politics is known to be the epitome of superficiality. Your 47% example is indeed pretty impressive. Someone saying that in France would be dead politically in a matter of hours.
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On October 18 2012 00:42 stormtemplar wrote:Show nested quote +On October 18 2012 00:26 USvBleakill wrote:TL:DR
You're missing that the electoral college is functionally unchangeable. It's bad, but nothing can be done because of the power of small and/or swing states to stop any amendment removing it. I know what you mean, in any democratic process it´s tough to change things that are this "old". Everyone i asked (i have some friends in NY) says "well most of the US hates the elecetion college and want it to be changed" but, i never never read something like "5.000 students protest against the... 20.000 Texan Democratic Party member protest against the election college because their votes are meaningless...". Is this a mentality thing or is there just no report by german speaking newspapers? Maybe texas democrats and such are protesting, I don't know. I don't hear about it, but even if they are it's irrelevant because of something I didn't think of before. The people who make the decisions in texas are republicans. The republicans hold a majority in both state houses, and there's no reason to think they'd lose them. And those republicans don't want Texas democrat's votes to count, because it's bad for their party. The same is true of new york or california democrats not wanting their republican votes to count. In short, people dislike the electoral college itself, but there are enough people in power who get more power from it who may not like it in the general sense but like their power that it can't be changed. The answer to you question is basically I don't know and it's irrelevant anyway.
for a country that claims to be the best democracy in the world it sounds... well sad.
Am i understanding you right that you are saying "the americans dont protest because it´s irrelevant as long the people with power don´t want it?"
I'll see your criticism of american politics and raise you one Berlusconi. Seriously, wtf is with that guy. But yeah, our political system can be bad sometimes.
Well every good family has his black sheep 
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On October 18 2012 01:08 stormtemplar wrote:Show nested quote +On October 18 2012 01:01 ArhK wrote:On October 17 2012 23:27 USvBleakill wrote:
It´s just hard to understand how the republics gets away with so many things. If Angela Merkel (btw. she is very popular in germany at the moment and will most likely "win" the next election with her party) would say "i don´t care about 47% of the germans because they dont pay taxes and dont vote me" she would be political dead in a day.
And 95% of the debate are just about Economy and jobs. Arab Spring, Nukes at Iran, € Euro crisis, Global Warming (!!!) bahhh who cares i give you more Jobs with reducing the taxes for rich people wuhuu.
i´m sorry i don´t want to insult somebody but americans looking a little "dumb" in politics. To be honest, in Europe at least, american politics is known to be the epitome of superficiality. Your 47% example is indeed pretty impressive. Someone saying that in France would be dead politically in a matter of hours. I'll see your criticism of american politics and raise you one Berlusconi. Seriously, wtf is with that guy. But yeah, our political system can be bad sometimes.
Well at least Berlusconi owns his own media and the left sucks in Italy since 90's. Like Prodi was decent but the left is to divided to govern and when you've a center-left far-left coalition in a parlementiary system it fails hard (Berlusconi won multiple times because he never had an unified coalition behind an opponent). Still it's a shame for Italy imo but i'm not the judge .
The problem for you imo is that both democrats and republican sucks (not Berlusconi's lvl maybe because sex isn't allowed :D) and since they're 100% sure they'll win the election at some point none have them have any interest to change the system.
but yeah the cultural gap is pretty huge, our former president Chirac had a bazillion love affair, everyone knew it and nobody gave a shit about it, Clinton got in pretty big problem for Monica... :D
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On October 17 2012 12:38 Fyrewolf wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2012 10:53 docvoc wrote:On October 17 2012 10:43 Chargelot wrote:
Romney continues to not understand basic mathematics.
Obama continues to not understand what a debate is.
Everything is normal, continue with your life. Obama's debate strategy is to basically make abstract thoughts and then call out Romney, and then make really esoteric statements. Romney's debate strategy is to continue to be unable to do addition That link is absolutely hilarious.
hahahahahahahahahaha that's really funny
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Sweden33719 Posts
On October 17 2012 18:10 Temerarious Trout wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2012 14:50 Liquid`Jinro wrote:
I think he's a featured blogger, it's not done on an individual post basis but rather he's consistently posted good stuff, so he shows up in the featured blog bar. Just a suggestion, if I may - Let Featured Bloggers have the option to post blogs that will show up in the Featured section or not to show up in the Featured section. Shady Sands is an absolutely top-notch writer and has shown that he has the ability to produce very high-quality blogs, but this particular one isn't deserving of a place in the Featured Blogs section, and I am sure Shady Sands agrees with me on this point. I think I'll post this in Website Feedback.
Good idea!
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On October 18 2012 01:01 ArhK wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2012 23:27 USvBleakill wrote:
It´s just hard to understand how the republics gets away with so many things. If Angela Merkel (btw. she is very popular in germany at the moment and will most likely "win" the next election with her party) would say "i don´t care about 47% of the germans because they dont pay taxes and dont vote me" she would be political dead in a day.
And 95% of the debate are just about Economy and jobs. Arab Spring, Nukes at Iran, € Euro crisis, Global Warming (!!!) bahhh who cares i give you more Jobs with reducing the taxes for rich people wuhuu.
i´m sorry i don´t want to insult somebody but americans looking a little "dumb" in politics. To be honest, in Europe at least, american politics is known to be the epitome of superficiality. Your 47% example is indeed pretty impressive. Someone saying that in France would be dead politically in a matter of hours.
Well, using France as an example isn't such a good idea. You guys almost voted for Sarkozy twice xD.
It's such a shame DSK didn't get his chance though, he looks more capable than both candidates in the previous french election.
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GRAND OLD AMERICA16375 Posts
On October 17 2012 19:29 Temerarious Trout wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2012 19:22 DKR wrote:
Dear America, vote Obama, sincerely, the rest of the world. What do you think about Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate?
While I do not agree with his stance on some social issues, he is probably a better candidate than both romney and obama.
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Fuck political squabbles. Singapore: 1 party policy. Sure it has its flaws, but rather than picking fights just for the sake of arguing, it actually gets its job done. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Also ~95% of the opposition candidates really suck.
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On October 18 2012 04:27 Heh_ wrote:
Fuck political squabbles. Singapore: 1 party policy. Sure it has its flaws, but rather than picking fights just for the sake of arguing, it actually gets its job done. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Also ~95% of the opposition candidates really suck.
Fuck political squabbles. Germany: Fuhrerprinzip. Sure it has its flaws, but rather than picking fights just for the sake of arguing, Der Fuhrer actually gets his job done. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Every nation has the right to have as crazy or nonsensical a political system as it wants. Criticizing a country for its political system is about as productive as criticizing a man for his choice of religion. All that sort of criticism leads to is needless suffering.
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+ Show Spoiler +Fuck political squabbles. Germany: Fuhrerprinzip. Sure it has its flaws, but rather than picking fights just for the sake of arguing, Der Fuhrer actually gets his job done. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
flaws? ain´t broke? You maybe mean little things like the second world war?
Obviously is critizing a political system that you don´t really understand meaningless, but from a political point of view i understand the people in north korea more then the americans.
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On October 18 2012 05:25 USvBleakill wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Fuck political squabbles. Germany: Fuhrerprinzip. Sure it has its flaws, but rather than picking fights just for the sake of arguing, Der Fuhrer actually gets his job done. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. flaws? ain´t broke? You maybe mean little things like the second world war? Obviously is critizing a political system that you don´t really understand meaningless, but from a political point of view i understand the people in north korea more then the americans.
You should realign your sarcasm detector. 
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EPT
