Making the Election Futile (Politics)
Y'all hear about the proposal to split California's Electoral votes so that instead of "Winner Takes All" they're alloted in proportion to the actual popular vote?

Sounds like a fair thing to do, right? Except that, if California is the only large state to do this it makes it so the Republicans will likely win any close Presidential election. See, California lately has gone for the Democrats; if you go with this system so that a Republican is pretty much guaranteed to get around twenty votes from California that gives them the equivalent of four or five small states worth of votes. The Republicans want this, so as to win the Electoral College without having to win the popular vote. And they want this to be the rule for the upcoming election, so if the Democratic candidate doesn't get an outright runaway election they'll probably lose even with a majority of the popular vote, assuming the pattern of the last couple of elections. You don't hear the Republicans wanting to do this for Texas or other large but Republican leaning states.

The argument for this is that it makes California matter more so candidates will pay attention to it, but why should they if this goes in? Under this system, the Democrat or the Republican are pretty much guaranteed a bunch of Electors; the vote ends up being over a number of Electors equivalent to a moderate size state. Why waste a lot of time and money to get a few votes in California when you can more effectively use your resources to gain all the votes of another state?

The reality of course is that the Electoral College is a fossil that people cling to for reasons that are utter nonsense. Like the notion that it makes candidates campaign in states that they otherwise would not; what's really happened is the candidates concentrate their resources and efforts on a few "battleground" states. If we're going to continue having an Elected King we should have them elected by popular vote of all the citizens (yes, also in the territories) and not use something that hasn't really worked since maybe the time of George Washington.

Unfortunately there's nothing those of us outside California can do about their change. The way Electors are selected is up to the States and there's nothing preventing them from doing this or for that matter going weird and selecting Electors by poker tournaments or beauty contests. Near as I can tell, nothing would have prevented Florida from pulling the stunt they were working on in 2000 where the election was to essentially be voided and the Electors selected by the Legislature; Gore could not have won, alas. Which, well, is more reason to throw out the archaic College. Won't happen of course unless there is a complete meltdown, or unless Democrats start getting into the White House while losing the popular vote.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that unless the voters of California reject this we're likely to see a Republican as the next president and that despite losing in the popular vote. Republican logic being such as it is, the new GOP President will claim a Grand Mandate to ban abortion, stay in Iraq forever, go to war against Iran (assuming we're not in a war with them already by then), pursue the most moronic foreign policy possible, and most importantly of all cut taxes on the rich. While they probably won't have a Republican Congress, they'll just rule by decree because, heck, we're at war ya know?

But no pressure on you California folk... :)