the split of the popular vote was very close to a tie.
All the more reason to keep the Electoral College. Can you imagine what a nationwide recount would look like? How long it would last? What it would do to the attitudes of the electorate?
(There are other, much better, reasons to keep the Electoral College, but I'm going to try to keep my replies here brief and thought-provoking, because you analysis here is brief and thought-provoking. Thank you for it.)
This campaign season has been expensive.
And yet, not as much was spent on political advertizing as was spent on fast-food advertizing during the same time-period. One could say that what the political ads were selling was more important, and so should have had more spent on it. Of course, the money for this must come from somewhere; I would actively oppose public funding, as I found most of the candidates not worthy of the time of day, let alone my money.
confronted with the threat of huge spending by corporate lobbyists and the hyperwealthy in support of the republicans [...]
And yet, they got profoundly little results from all that spending. Even the best ad campaigns can't sell crap like that.
Passion [...]
One of the things that scares me most about political campaigns is just how rapidly they become cults of personality. WCVB was just slavering over Joe Kennedy III's victory. I have no idea what the red-headed JFK is like; I couldn't see or hear a thing from the blazing image that was burned into my retinas. Brown also fostered this among his volunteers; if Kerry takes a position in the Obama administration, I'd be surprised if Brown doesn't run for that seat.
Most of the [campaign resources] were concentrated in a small number of largish states
Small number, yes (9). "Largish"? Not exactly. NH - 4 CO - 9 NV - 6 IA - 6 WI - 10
Sure, FL and OH got most of the attention due to their size, but VA and NC were also in play. The main factor is that these states were available.
All politics take place in the middle of the bell curve. David Link
I don't know what the answers are either. I have some ideas, but as this is a democratic-flavored country, and these ideas are not popular, they will not be implemented anyway. But mostly, I'd like to see more attention paid to states' rights, and thus devolve which level of government takes jurisdiction of the changing parts of public policy. I believe that CO and WA both passing the legalization of recreational marijuana will be the driving force for that.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2012-11-08 02:49 am (UTC)All the more reason to keep the Electoral College. Can you imagine what a nationwide recount would look like? How long it would last? What it would do to the attitudes of the electorate?
(There are other, much better, reasons to keep the Electoral College, but I'm going to try to keep my replies here brief and thought-provoking, because you analysis here is brief and thought-provoking. Thank you for it.)
This campaign season has been expensive.
And yet, not as much was spent on political advertizing as was spent on fast-food advertizing during the same time-period. One could say that what the political ads were selling was more important, and so should have had more spent on it. Of course, the money for this must come from somewhere; I would actively oppose public funding, as I found most of the candidates not worthy of the time of day, let alone my money.
confronted with the threat of huge spending by corporate lobbyists and the hyperwealthy in support of the republicans [...]
And yet, they got profoundly little results from all that spending. Even the best ad campaigns can't sell crap like that.
Passion [...]
One of the things that scares me most about political campaigns is just how rapidly they become cults of personality. WCVB was just slavering over Joe Kennedy III's victory. I have no idea what the red-headed JFK is like; I couldn't see or hear a thing from the blazing image that was burned into my retinas. Brown also fostered this among his volunteers; if Kerry takes a position in the Obama administration, I'd be surprised if Brown doesn't run for that seat.
Most of the [campaign resources] were concentrated in a small number of largish states
Small number, yes (9). "Largish"? Not exactly.
NH - 4
CO - 9
NV - 6
IA - 6
WI - 10
Sure, FL and OH got most of the attention due to their size, but VA and NC were also in play. The main factor is that these states were available.
I don't know what the answers are either. I have some ideas, but as this is a democratic-flavored country, and these ideas are not popular, they will not be implemented anyway. But mostly, I'd like to see more attention paid to states' rights, and thus devolve which level of government takes jurisdiction of the changing parts of public policy. I believe that CO and WA both passing the legalization of recreational marijuana will be the driving force for that.