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sebleon | 7 years ago
1. The president is not picked based on the people’s vote. The US is a republic, not a democracy, where government officials cast the deciding votes.
2. The voting infrastructure can be easily tampered with, likely by design as pointed out above.
3. There is no limits on campaign spending, enabling billionaires and corporations to own the winning candidates that got the most airtime.
4. Two private entities have a duopoly on the presidency. They’ve established rules that prevent any new parties from serious consideration.
5. As surfaced by the Wikileaks DNC dump, at least one (if not both) of these parties actively sabotage some of their candidates to ensure the party’s pick a spot in the final national election.
lucozade|7 years ago
Yes, the US President is. It's not a straight referendum but that doesn't mean it's not based on people's votes.
> The US is a republic, not a democracy
It's both.
> where government officials cast the deciding votes
No they don't.
> The voting infrastructure can be easily tampered with
The machines appear to be. That's quite a way from saying that the infrastructure is. That would require the tampering to be easily achievable. There's little evidence of that.
> There is no limits on campaign spending
Yes there are. They're not very effective but they exist.
> Two private entities have a duopoly on the presidency
Effectively yes.
> to ensure the party’s pick a spot in the final national election
This would be way more convincing if Trump wasn't the President. He clearly wasn't the pick of the Republicans establishment. Or anywhere near. If anything, his election shows that the parties don't have the control that they'd like you to think they have.
The US presidential elections are far from a joke. Not perfect by any means but internationally important events and, in historic terms, beacons of democracy. And in case it need saying, I'm not American and have no interest in being American.