Re;[EM] Lincoln; Big money, gerrymanders, rotten EC, etc.

[Alex Small]

I'd like to concur with Joe's sentiments.  Although an in-depth debate over
Lincoln is a little off-topic, two observations:

1)  Although the US is (to the best of my knowledge) the only country that
required a full-blown war to end slavery, it's not entirely clear to me
that it could have happened any other way.  OK, maybe at some point
technological progress would have rendered slave-based farming
unprofitable.  However, to this day there are places in the world where
people are in bondage.

My point is, it's possible that the differences were irreconcilable, and
since they were associated with region as much with class (unlike some
places where slavery is purel a class issue) and because the slave-owning
region fancied itself to be sovereign ("states' rights"), war may have been
inevitable, unless the North rolled over and played dead.  If so, then at
some point it's inevitable that a President who was unacceptable to most
Southerners would take office, and at that point all hell would have broken
loose.

So, Lincoln and the EC may not be to blame.

2)  Although I fully agree with Demorep that the EC should be abolished, I
don't know that anybody should prophesize civil war the next time the EC
defeats the popular winner.  Of the 4 (or 5, depending on what you think of
1960) EC failures, NONE produced a civil war.  One resulted in a deal
ending Reconstruction, to the doom of southern blacks, but the defeat of
the popular will did not lead to war.

I am NOT saying the popular will should be defeated.  I'm saying that even
very bad things (like defeating the popular will) are not guaranteed
precursors to apocalypse.  Indeed, Lincoln won both the popular and
electoral vote (although it's quite likely that a popular vote via Approval
or Condorcet would have yielded a different outcome).

So, let's not let predictions of doom and the smearing of a good President
get in the way of discussing how to perfect democracy.

Finally, remember that democracy is a bad idea, but all the other ones are
far worse ;)

Alex

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