-And talking about it and using it as a galvanizing and organizing weapon -until it happens would be in the top five agenda items for any political -party that gave a genuine crap about the bottom two-thirds of the society. -But, Nathan's captivity notwithstanding, the DP ain't that. Stone cold -fact.
In my list of top five things needed in this country, reforming the electoral college is not even top five in improving voting procedures, much less top five among substantive issues, such as universal health care, labor law reform, expanded civil rights laws, environmental policies, etc. Top five voting issues-- national ban on Congressional gerrymandering, end felon disenfranchisment across the country, same day voter registration, right to citizenship for all residents in the US for more than five years, beefed up voting rights act to require counting of all ballots cast by a registered voter.
And if we want to talk about issues that are unobtainable, changing the electoral college is a distant second to abolishing the anti-democratic Senate, which gives largely white voters in Wyoming -- as much population as the city of Oakland-- as much voting power as all of California in the US Senate. Now that's a voting outrage.
Nathan Newman
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Michael Pollak Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 3:52 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Prop. 62 Would Squelch Third Parties in California
On Tue, 26 Oct 2004, Doug Henwood wrote:
>> Why no mention of the Electoral College by your party of social
>> betterment?
>
> It would be nearly impossible to abolish without scrapping the whole damn
> constitution. Not that that's a bad thing, but that would be a
> revolutionary change.
That's a bit of an exaggeration. Passing a constitutional amendment is difficult, but it's not a revolution. No more than the amendment that established direct election of senators in 1913.
Michael ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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