Er, I didn't say that the popular voted counted in 2000. It never does. I said the popular vote has been driving American politics, and I think that's pretty evident given THE LAST 30 YEARS OF ELECTION CYCLES.

That was 1860, not 1864.

Majority =/= plurality.

Churches can't tell people who to vote for, else they lose their tax exemption status. But I agree with you. It goes beyond churches though, the worst is the Bolshevik mentality the majority of Americans have when it comes to Republicans and Democrats, who strangely enough, don't disagree on much in the abstract!!

Okay let's see here, "mavericks" aside:

- Considers Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, and Tom Daschle (ick) "close friends."
- McCain/Feingold (aka campaign finance)
- Helped with No Child Left Behind
- Founder of the "Gang of 14"
- Supported the renewal of the assault weapons ban, AND sponsored S1805 which would've made gun shows illegal
- Supports amnesty, and WROTE the amnesty bill that failed last summer
- Funded by George Soros Inc. since 2001
- Supports REAL ID

Yeah, I think that should answer your question.

This is exactly my point. The last thing America needs is more dumb Americans voting. If anything, I'd encourage LESS stupid people to vote, and MORE informed people to cast ballots.

Such is the two-edged sword of a free society, I suppose.

I wasn't so much referring to the popular vote as much as I was the electoral college. The point is that the electoral college is in place for a reason, and a very good reason at that.

And Fanta is right, however, it depends on what you mean by "popular vote." Lincoln only had about 28% of the vote in his reelection year. There's only been a handful of times any president in this country got a majority of the votes, George W. Bush in 2004 being one of them.

EDIT: Also the popular vote has been driving American politics for quite some time. I don't really know how you can say otherwise.

I realize what I'm saying may be considered political blasphemy by the mainstream, but I am only reiterating the same notions of the founders.

Sad to see such knowledge is considered a joke these days.

If we had had a "popular vote" determining everything throughout most of U.S. history when it came to key issues such as the Revolution, slavery, the Civil War, World War II and Civil Rights, our country would not have even survived into the present day. The popular vote is a good thing to have for insurance, but it has proven itself to cause much more problems than it solves. This is why we have a Constitution.

I disagree. Voter turnout statistically has no correlation with voter registration. If you look at voter registration over the past couple election cycles, you'll see that the percentage of younger people (18-24) as registered voters has gone down, and while voter turn out has indeed gone up in the aggregate, the numbers don't necessarily signal some sort of overwhelming electoral shift.

What should be talked about as more important is that more people have registered as independent over the last 16 years than in the last half century.

And finally, this isn't a democracy, this is a Republic. We don't want the "popular vote" to dictate the status quo--that's called tyranny of the majority, and our founders warned us of it many times in their writings.

21 going on 37. So I guess I'm halfway qualified to be posting in this thread, right?

Oooooh, flaming in this thread!

*straps on flame-retardant suit*

I miss Florida too...

You know, the one that was an affordable state to live in. Yeah that one.

Representing Stuart, aka the place that got hit directly with two hurricanes in the same year.

I've dabbled in Pokemon however I haven't played my DS copy of Pearl lately.

I don't care what you people say, those Pokemon games are some of the most complete RPGs ever made. This coming from someone who's played 'em all.

Gamer here. I'm actually playing Oblivion on my computer right now!

(On a Saturday night no less, this is why I'm on a dating site )