The Electoral College has no redeeming value. Once upon a time, together with the 3/5 clause, it guaranteed the slaveocracy yet another way of stifling any moves to restrict their "peculiar institution." It was retained as it gave disproportionate clout to the new Republican railroad-dominated states in the West. It is interdependent with the upper house of the legislative branch, the Senate. These are all institutions to keep power away from the people. The two-party system evolved as post-Constittional elaborations of these principles. Calling this baroque eighteenth century mechanism a "democracy" is just a big of powdered wig gaslighting.
A multi-party representative system based directly on the vote of the people with universal suffrage would make for a much more representative government. It's worth our while to point it out. But pretending the Lords and Masters would actually make such changes does nothing to strengthen our grasp on the realities of power. Mark L. On Fri, Oct 4, 2024 at 12:33 AM John Edmundson via groups.io <johnedmundson4=gmail....@groups.io> wrote: > New Zealand had a 1st past rhe post electoral system until the 1990s. We > had 2 and a bit parties in parliament (one die hard Social Credit MP with a > loyal local following). On at least a few occasions nthe party with the > most votes came second. It was seen as wrong by most people (especially > those who felt cheated of course), but endured for decades without a > campaign to change it. > > Eventually a campaign emerged, Labour for years had proportional > representation in its manifesto but did nothing. Eventually it was put to a > referendum under National (who were keep being told are fascists). A local > tosser from the corporate sector ran a poor campaign against but despite > the complicated 2 step process, it was passed. > > We had to choose for or against the stars quo, then, in the event of a > change, which of STV (like Ireland), MMP (like Germany (the > Greens'preferred option)), preferential voting (like Australia) and I think > a 4th. We got MMP by quite a margin. > > The point is, people put up with a bad system for a long time but a > campaign finally emerged and gained enough momentum to get it adopted by a > major party. > > Comradely, > John > > On Fri, 4 Oct 2024, 17:50 sartesian via groups.io, <sartesian= > earthlink....@groups.io> wrote: > >> Marv's arguments stand as their own critique. "It's a good issue for >> mobilizing a mass movement..." at the same time as it wouldn't undermine >> class rule, and the US can "fall in line"--- >> >> Meanwhile 36 states in the US have enacted some form of voter suppression >> laws; the USSC scraps the core of the Voting Rights Act. Plus if you >> compare maps of states with voter suppression laws,, you find the states >> with the harshest laws are the same states with "right to work laws"---but >> don't connect the dots, don't make the links. Doing so might undermine >> class rule.....and piss off the Democrats. >> >> But yeah "We support democratic struggles." News flash, we only do that >> because of their proximity to and our ability to demonstrate the class >> content of the struggles and the necessity of undermining the ruling class. >> > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#32709): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/32709 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108801645/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
