[burgerbrain]

To those intent on voting ryandickherber down so much, please consider the following:

Only ~19.8%^ of the United States population voted for Obama.

Is it really so unreasonable to question this system?

^ Popular Vote / Approximate 2008 United States Population

[tptacek]

I think it is, but either way: Obama was elected in an election with a turnout that exceeded FDR's.

[burgerbrain]

"Obama was elected in an election with a turnout that exceeded FDR's"

Yeah, I think that's a pretty strong point in my favor actually.

[grourk]

How's that?

[burgerbrain]

It shows that 2008 isn't a freak occurrence. The problem is systemic.

[shadowflit]

I'm not sure what dividing by population is trying to prove. Using very fuzzy numbers, there's almost 100m (or about 30%) people not eligible to vote in those population numbers.

[burgerbrain]

Disenfranchisement is a very important part of the problem. I used total population not "voting citizens" quite deliberately.

[speleding]

I'm not sure why you are focussing on the percentage of people of the population. This may or may not be a problem depending on your point of view (an elitist might even think we should limit it some more) but by far a greater problem is surely that people only had two flavors they could realistically choose from. And the two flavors weren't all that different.

This is something that can relatively easily be changed. Europe has democracies with over 20 different political parties, as many as 15 getting elected representatives. Lots of inefficiencies with that many parties, of course, but at least more people get to choose something they agree with. Of course the only people who could change it would have to give up lots of power. Not going to happen. See Britain.

[codezero]

"this system" wasn't put in place by Obama.

[burgerbrain]

You have missed my point entirely. I am commenting on the nature of the democracy itself. My comment is meant to be neutral concerning Obama.