[Vision2020] Presidential Elections

[Donovan Arnold]

Joshua says,

"some thoughts:
Having a purely majority vote election would split the country. It's already 
becoming divided, but in my opinion choosing a leader based solely upon 
50.0001% of the votes is crazy."

Then why even have elections. Let us just live in a dictatorship. Think 
about what you said Josh, you said that the majority vote should not be the 
deciding factor, so why hold elections, isn't the whole point of it?

Donovan J Arnold


>From: Joshua Nieuwsma <joshuahendrik@yahoo.com>
>To: vision <vision2020@moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Presidential Elections
>Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:19:23 -0700 (PDT)
>
>some thoughts:
>Having a purely majority vote election would split the country. It's 
>already becoming divided, but in my opinion choosing a leader based solely 
>upon 50.0001% of the votes is crazy. At least right now, with the electoral 
>college, we have a system to blame when someone gets voted in with less 
>than the majority of the citizens votes. An entity is alot less personal 
>than the guy down the street who we have enmity against, if it is a hotly 
>contested election, because he voted for the other guy that got in instead 
>of our 49.9999% guy. Simple majority is a great way to get people 
>frustrated, upset, and eventually riotous. (Incidentally, it is also a 
>dangerous basis for legislation.) The southern states were quite unhappy 
>when Lincoln won the presidency without even a simple majority. He got 
>something like 37%. But the electoral college put him in power.
>And besides, no one likes runoffs. Isn't it best to avoid them? We don't 
>live in anything remotely like an ideal state. Look at how hard it is for 
>California to decide to replace their governor. How much worse to hold a 
>second presidential election. It's just not feasible, in my opinion.
>And Mr. Hansen, I think you missed Pastor Wilson's point. Two opposite 
>directions (i.e. not facing same way) is not the same thing as two 
>different choices. Both the Dems and the Reps are socialists. Just one is 
>more open about it.
>
>sincerely,
>
>Joshua Nieuwsma
>
>thansen@moscow.com wrote:
>Douglas Wilson stated:
>
>"The last presidential election where Americans had a real choice to go in 
>one
>of two opposite directions occurred a long time before I was born."
>
>Please elaborate. Every federal presidential election in which I have
>participated since I was of voting age (and that has been several days ago) 
>has
>clearly consisted of at least two choices (and in some cases three or 
>more).
>
>In my opinion for presidential election results to truly reflect the 
>peoples'
>choice is to eliminate the electoral college and base the outcome stricly 
>on
>popular vote. In the event that a candidate does not attract the majority 
>vote
>(defined as 50% plus one), there should be a runoff between the top two
>candidates. It is clearly that simple.
>
>Any other thoughts?
>
>Tom Hansen
>Moscow,
>Idaho
>
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