A quick lesson in politics
 

For those of you who like to post "you elected him" or "4 more years" or whatever other witty remark you think sounds good, remember that we Americans do not elect our President. Sure, we vote, but those votes don't mean shit. I get a kick out of the fact that a lot of foreigners who are quick to bash Americans for "voting for him" don't know the first thing about how our system operates. Everytime I go to Europe I have to explain to people what the Electoral College is and how it works. Since a good number of you don't seem to understand this concept, here is the definition, provided by our good friends over at the Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition: "A body of electors chosen to elect the President and Vice President of the United States." Notice that this is a definition for "Electoral College," not "U.S. Citizens" or "Americans on GFY."

I hope this clears up any confusion. :thumbsup

God Bless America.


L$

thanks, we only learned this in our 6th grade goverment / civics class :)

Yeah, we did, unfortunately most Europeans did not.

And then there was enlightenment--brought by Shoehorn..

Case in point... that's how Dubya got his first round in the White house... Gore won popular vote, electoral college rested with Dubya...

Just remember everyone anarchy through capitalism... you have the money... you can make your own rules (not necessarily related, just my own personal life motto)

You voted for him.

1st time: Gore won the popular vote, Bush won the electoral college vote
2nd time: Bush won both

I voted for Kerry. But you still got to give it to Bush despite the Electoral College. He won the majority of the votes as well. People voted like sheep. I know a lot of people voted for Bush because they felt safer with him in his office because we were at war. They didn't want another President in because they though Kerry would mess things up with it and possibly withdraw the troops which would make things worse.

does that still meet the definition of a democracy?

de·moc·ra·cy
government by the people; especially : rule of the majority

I think you will find that alot of americans dont understand alot about politics. After the 2000 election, you had people screaming about the electoral college like it was something new that just attacked them.

Most of the gfy political minds, or at least the ones that start political threads, have a 3rd grade understanding of the political system.

Cool thanks for the info. I wasnt aware of this.

:warning

Pardon if Im wrong but isnt the electoral vote based somewhat on the popular vote? I thought generally the electoral votes will lean towards the popular votes from that state... I know they dont have to but isnt that how it usually works? Like I said Im no expert so pardon if Im completly wrong...

The Electoral College was put into place as a type of safety net, the Founding Fathers didn't think that most Americans were smart enough to make a good decision when it came to choosing a leader, so they created the Electoral College to do it for us.