Comments by "Lawrence D’Oliveiro" (@lawrencedoliveiro9104) on "Second Thought" channel.

  1. Surely a majority vote is one of the important checks and balances in a democracy. Without it, you could have a situation where, say, 30% of the populace installed a leader that 70% didn’t want.
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  2. Interesting to see those who keep harking back to the memory of Hitler. Note that the Germans have a democracy where every vote counts equally, and this was brought in after WWII precisely to ensure that a dictator could never take power there again. We in NZ liked it so much, we copied it too. Maybe time for the US to give it a try?
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  3. The German proportional-voting system was put in place after WWII to ensure that a dictator could never get power there again. It was considered so good, we here in NZ copied it too. Maybe it’s time for the US to try it?
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  4. Here in NZ we changed to a proportional-voting system in 1996. Before that, I used to live in a marginal electorate. That meant my vote counted for more than someone living in a “safe seat”. Now things are much more equal, since it is the nationwide party vote that determines how many seats each party gets in Parliament.
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  5. Here in NZ we looked at various possibilities in the early 1990s. Ireland uses a ranked-choice system. That is good for individuals, not so good for parties. We decided to go for the German-style MMP system, which fits in with party-focused politics.
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  6. Either they have term limits, or they should be apolitical. You can’t have political appointees given a job for life.
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  7. Not very representative, either.
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  8.  @allenantonioheyllatorre5720  Isn’t that what happened in 2016?
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  9.  @allenantonioheyllatorre5720  Total voter turnout was just 59% in 2016, of which Trump won less than half. That adds up to less than 30% of the populace.
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  10.  @allenantonioheyllatorre5720  Or maybe they did care. But found neither candidate particularly appealing. Remember that Trump’s popularity rating from the moment he assumed office was already below 50%.
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  11.  @allenantonioheyllatorre5720  No, the polls were not “proven incorrect”. In both cases, they did reflect the popular vote.
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  12.  @allenantonioheyllatorre5720  But still they did reflect who won the popular vote.
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  13.  @allenantonioheyllatorre5720  No I didn’t. He got much less than that. The high point might have been 45%.
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  14.  @allenantonioheyllatorre5720  You said 50, I didn’t say 50.
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  15. “Democratic”, but not a democracy?
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  16. That’s a load of nonsense. That “too influential” idea has never been shown to happen in practice.
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  17. If every vote counted equally, things would be a lot fairer.
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  18. Consider that no Republican Presidential candidate has won the popular vote since 1992, and you can guess which party is going to fight tooth and nail to ensure that the Electoral College stays ...
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  19. I’ve heard the phrase “constitutional republic”, but given the way the current President has trampled all over the first part of that phrase ...
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