Was anyone else lied to in their high school Government class?

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  • Hkindiana

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    I took the required Government class in high school back in 1978. I still remember the teacher explaining that the reason behind the electoral college was that the government did not trust the intelligence of the general population to elect the president, so the "educated" electoral college was a way to insure that the proper candidate became president. He explained that it was an outdated notion that should be scrapped because Americans are now "smart enough" to democratically vote for the president.
    I wonder if students are still being lied to, having no idea of the real reason behind the electoral college. It would be a lot easier to scream for the abolishment of the electoral college if you don't know WHY it truly exists in the first place. Too many people BLINDLY believe what they are taught, or what they read, or what they hear.
     

    KG1

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    I would dispute the claim that many Americans are now "smart enough" (properly informed on the issues) to vote for POTUS.
     

    jbombelli

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    I also dispute that people are "smart enough." Most folks don't even know how our government works, or who does what.

    For example, most people seem to think there is something called "the popular vote" when we don't have a national election, but instead have 50 different state elections all held at the same time. The popular vote only matters at THE STATE LEVEL. Beyond that, there's no such thing. Yet I see it blathered about all the time, including on INGO and by ELECTED POLITICIANS WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER.
     

    Ingomike

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    I tend to think that people who advocate doing away with the electoral college are small thinkers or big cheaters.

    Amazingly that was not one of the lies I was told in school.

    MM
     

    2A-Hoosier23

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    We were taught in HS that the real purpose of the Electoral College was to prevent states with relatively massive populations from having all the deciding weight in the election; the College supposedly allows the low-population flyover states to have a proportionate impact on the election.

    As far as the matter of whether or not Americans are smart enough, some political theorists have argued for an "epistocracy" which basically means you have to take basic tests before you can vote. The idea is not to give the smartest citizen "more" votes, but to raise the voting bar above the LEAST-informed members of society. Professor at Georgetown U + political philosopher Jason Brennan wrote an interesting article on the matter, it's a short read for anyone who may be interested. https://nationalinterest.org/feature/against-democracy-17605?nopaging=1 He did write a whole book on the matter too, but I haven't got around to reading that, just the article
     
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    BigBoxaJunk

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    The man who taught Government class at my High School was one of the better teachers that we had. Even though I had almost no interest at all in those things, I do remember learning about the Electoral College in a factual, accurate way. I took Govt. in my senior year 79/80.

    Although I could fill a hat with all of the other lies I was told in school. But, I'm sure teachers have been lying to kids as long as they've been paid to teach them. I was always really proud that both of my kids had maintained a healthy skepticism for the typical BS that was doled out to them when they were in school.
     

    2A-Hoosier23

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    From Brennan's article:

    "Citizens aren’t just ignorant or misinformed, but irrational. Few citizens process information with an open mind; most citizens disregard any information that contradicts their current ideology. Voters suffer from a wide range of biases, including confirmation bias, disconfirmation bias, motivated reasoning, intergroup bias, availability bias and prior attitude effects."

    Although he could just be talking about 1911 owners ;)
     

    edporch

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    With the Electoral Vote system, each state gets the same PROPORTIONAL representation in choosing the President as they have in Congress.
    Which is certainly superior to a national total popular vote scheme where New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and a few other densely populated metropolitan areas will decide the President.
     

    Dead Duck

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    WOW!
    I'm sorry that your HS instructors were flower children protesters from the 60s.
    vcpJvXJ.gif
     

    VERT

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    I only things I remember about government class. 1) we had a mock election since it was 1992. I was the only person taking the class that voted for George Bush instead of Bill Clinton or Ross Perot. 2) the teacher disliked sales tax because it resulted in low income people paying a disproportionately higher percentage of tax. Rich people should pay higher taxes in his opinion. 3) The teacher divorced his wife to shack up with a girl in my class. I think they broke up when she got fat.
     

    Nazgul

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    OK, My wife has taught Govt. for 37 years. The 2 reasons for the electoral college is to prevent large urban areas from dominating the elections and the Founding Fathers did not think the general population was smart enough to elect a President.

    Her words, that I don't disagree with.

    Don
     

    2A_Tom

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    OK, My wife has taught Govt. for 37 years. The 2 reasons for the electoral college is to prevent large urban areas from dominating the elections and the Founding Fathers did not think the general population was smart enough to elect a President.

    Her words, that I don't disagree with.

    Don

    Correct. Originally there was no popular vote for President or Senators.

    As a land owner I voted for local Government.

    The best of them went on to State Government.

    They in turn sent their best to the Senate.

    We sent the best of them to Congress.

    They in turn voted for the best to be President. The best of all were nominated and the one with the most votes became President. The one with the second most became VP.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    And I find it telling that the overwhelming majority (north of 99.99999%) of those calling for banishing the EC are Leftist Dems.

    And they are not stupid. They fully understand that if they get it passed, the liberal thinking cities will control the election in perpetuity. To the point IMHO a vote other than "which Democrat for prez do you want" would be useless. Nobody else should even bother showing up because they literally could not win.

    But they count on the ignorance of the masses, and simply tell them the EC is oudated, their votes are being stolen because the EC reps dont always vote the way your vote tells them to, etc.

    On the plus side, that would be some wild ass campaign finance. No longer would they have to spend money here in flyover country campaigning because our votes just wouldnt count.
     

    Hkindiana

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    OK, My wife has taught Govt. for 37 years. The 2 reasons for the electoral college is to prevent large urban areas from dominating the elections and the Founding Fathers did not think the general population was smart enough to elect a President.

    Her words, that I don't disagree with.

    Don

    Yep, those are the TWO reasons, but my Socialist leaning teacher only taught us the ONE reason.
     

    Kutnupe14

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    OK, My wife has taught Govt. for 37 years. The 2 reasons for the electoral college is to prevent large urban areas from dominating the elections and the Founding Fathers did not think the general population was smart enough to elect a President.

    Her words, that I don't disagree with.

    Don

    THIS
     

    ghuns

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    ...The 2 reasons for the electoral college is to prevent large urban areas from dominating the elections and the Founding Fathers did not think the general population was smart enough to elect a President...

    I'm not sure if those dudes were geniuses or prophets. Either way, they've never been more righter.:popcorn:
     
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