(03-22-2019, 10:21 AM)mikesez Wrote:

(03-22-2019, 09:38 AM)jj82284 Wrote: first you said 


How is pointing out that sentiment is antithetical to 10th amendment federalism OFF TOPIC?  Just a question.  

1.) if you are going to use the text book definition of: a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument. Then the rational quality of any given candidate or politicians positions does in fact matter in classifying someone as a demagogue.  If you mean to say anyone who makes a general emotional appeal, or makes any statement that isn't right out of the "Harvard debate society" then there has NEVER been a politician to meet that definition so what difference does the EC make.  Moreover, contextually the term is used to describe someone as making a large scale emotional appeal that would, on its merits, fail rational scrutiny. You can't make that assertion when the policies advocated function as intended and provide positive results. 

2.) Most dramatically, you skip over the basic fact that your original premise for this thread is wrong.  The Electoral College wasn't created to simply to prevent "Demagogues" from assuming the presidency it was created as an instrument of Federalist Democratic Republicanism to choose an executive in the same way that we pass laws to ensure broad consensus within the paradigm of State Sovereignty, Regional integrity, and mitigating mobocracy.  Contrary to popular opinion, it wasn't created just to ensure you have what you perceive to be a sterile Twitter feed. 


[font=Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,Sans-Serif]Constitutional republicanism is a form of government that has allowed our country to function in commerce and politics for the last 160 years without regional armed conflict or the threat of secession.  The only time in our history when it became a question was the elimination of the most onerous economic institution in the history of mankind, not just our country.  It's a delicate balance of a strong Federal Government that can advocate for the Union as a whole while preserving state sovereignty and regional integrity.  That's a remarkable feat that the Founders accomplished 250 years ago in 7 pages that the BETTERS of Europe haven't accomplished in 1000.  To boil down the instruments of Democratic republicanism to just finding leaders who "Don't say things I don't like" would be like calling would be like criticizing a 747 for the peanuts. [/font]

3.) You fail to acknowledge the role of societal evolution, social media, media bias, and the current state of the educational system in continuing to foster the hostility in the political environment.  You have this myopic view that somehow if we just wave a magic wand and count delegates differently that somehow we will arrive at this utopia.  

4.) And here it is.  Going back to my point about the affects of higher education, it amazes me how many so called conservatives will try to distance themselves from the last theater of popular culture that actually advocates, or even tolerates the ideology they espouse just to be seen in the eyes of the world as Civil.  But in a way you're right.  There is a time and a place for everything.  The political marketplace demonstrates that McCain, the Godfather of this ideology found the wrong balance, Romney found the wrong balance, and Trump found a balance not seen in the GOP since Dukakis.  

One last story, When General Lemay took over the B29 program, I can only imagine the loud cry from the engineers who designed the plane that this simpleton would have the ignorance and the sheer audacity to take a plane they designed in all their splendor to fly at 30k feet (and miss its targets) and drop it down to 7k feet.

Equivocation city, dude. Wow. 
The president is financially bound to adversarial foreign governments, clearly using the presidency to further his financial interest, specifically by collecting emoluments from foreigners. 

these are all possible outcomes that Alexander Hamilton said we would avoid by using an electoral college in Federalist 68.

The demagoguery on Twitter is important to but let's not get lost in the weeds here.