Nader off Florida Ballot

Rory writes "This could be it for Ralph Nader. A Florida judge has issued a preliminary injunction, ruling the Reform Party is no longer a party, thereby knocking its candidate, Ralph Nader, off the Florida ballot. The devil is in the details, and Florida has too many electoral votes for this not to have serious impact on the national election, if this preliminary ruling holds up on appeal."

Comments

Re:Why do we /still/ have the Electoral College?

[G. W. Bush Junior]

The US is a federal government, made up (in theory) of several sovereign states. The USA was formed by actions of the state governments. The President must not only be the leader of the people, but the leader of the states - and in many ways being the leader of the state federation (having a majority of states supporting him) is more important than capturing a majority of the popular vote.

yes, I know the history of your system very well - and it all made *perfect* sense in 1789.
But what carachterizes you as a person? the state you live in or your religion or your skin color, political oberservance, attitude towards gays , etc.?
Can you really tell me that it's more important to you that you are represented by someone from your state than wether that person is a homophobic, KKK member or a soft hearted, weak assed, peace loving democrat? (I hope I've insulted both sides now).
Besides it would actually be possible to represent all states equally (as demanded by the constitution) and still represent other parties than the democrats and republican... it is not mutually exclusive requirements.
Just because a system made sense 300 years ago and led to some good things doesn't mean you can't change it when the world changes.

The EC as an institution makes sense, its just the current implementation that's a little whacked.

I've made it clear that I disagree with the first statement, but at least we can agree on the second.

This makes the rather racist assumption that all blacks thing alike, at least enough alike to vote the same way. America was built on the idea of individual freedom. It's only the past 75 years or so that politicians began pandering to blocs and special interest groups.

You come dangerously close to calling me a nazi here :)
All minorities have special interest, while there are republican blacks, I'm sure that even they agree that blacks and whites should be treated as equals. An attitude that is not going to be heard in the current system. Fact is that blacks are underrepresented in senate and house of representatives because they are a minority, just as libertarians are underrepresented for being a minority. That makes it a flawed system.
But you are right, maybe I should have said that all libertarians should move to the same state to be heard... It would have been more palatable for the more PC minded.