Underhill
Well-Known Member
America is not a democracy (or rather a pure one). A pure democracy has little regard for the fundamental rights which can easily change at the whim of the majority. If people truly understood what a pure democracy meant, very few would support it. That is why no country (or a very small number) practices pure democracy today. Most countries (like Australia and UK) have representative systems which work in a very similar way to the electoral college. This is to ensure that the government (rather the executive body) protects the interests of the population and the states/constituents.
Nobody is saying we should have a pure democracy. People keep trying to equate a direct vote in an election with doing away with representative government. The two are not one in the same.
We can allow the people to directly choose the presidency with no ill effect and without changing the representative nature of our government (ie congress).
What we have now simply allows for the 2 sides to rig the game. That's why I've always laughed when Trump talks about a rigged election. Republicans have been hard at work rigging the system for decades with gerrymandering and eliminating polling places in convenient places for minorities. (and yes, Democrats also gerrymander but republicans have been much more effective at doing it). This is a large part of why Trump won states like PA, where redistricting allowed the right to pack democrats in a small number of districts.
http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/27/ratfcked-the-influence-of-redistricting