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Originally Posted by Freebase Dali
Just curious here, but which of Romney's positions do you agree with?
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Very few. One position I can think of is that Romney supported a woman's right to choose to have an abortion in the case of rape, incest, and risk to her life. (At least he didn't want to take away
all women's rights over their bodies.)
Also, Romney didn't support affirmative action. Although I agree with affirmative action's goal of ending discrimination, I oppose affirmative action or "positive discrimination" because I feel people shouldn't be encouraged or forced to discriminate among school and employment applicants based on race, ethnicity, or gender (immutable characteristics unrelated to competency). I prefer less discriminatory methods for working toward social and economic equality, such as by increasing need-based financial aid for low income students and expanding job searches but still selecting based on merit and individuality, not stereotypes.
(My opinion on affirmative action is due partly on my experience of it, because I was a beneficiary of affirmative action when I was accepted into the university I attended, without realizing it at the time.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
What do you feel would be the flaws of simply having a popular vote? The way I see it, it would give everyone an equal voice and also make third party candidates more viable. Both of those seem like positives to me.
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I agree that the U.S. should do away with the Electoral College system of selecting the president. Like Janszoon says, every person's vote in the presidential election should be equal, and a person's geographical location should not alter the impact of her or his vote.
I've read that the Electoral College concept does have some good goals, such as making sure that presidential candidates don't focus all their energy on the states where they have the greatest support, trying to increase the voter turn-out there while ignoring the rest of the country. The Electoral College forces political parties and candidates to appeal to people in a larger number of states, which might make the U.S. a stronger republic.
But we already have the Senate that enables states to have their needs heard and addressed by the central government regardless of the states' population or economic power. So there is no need to have an Electoral College that causes the current undemocratic system in which some people's votes are worth more than other people's.
Also, I think the Electoral College encourages the main political candidates to become too similar to each other on too many topics as they cater to the middle, hoping not to repel people.
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