I was listening to NPR radio the other afternoon on the way home from work. The subject of the moment was the up coming changes to the Medicade program that helps handicapped folks get motorized wheelchairs.
In the segment they were interviewing a rancher fellow that had got old and couldn't get around hardly at all.
The interviewer made note of the fact that the rancher fellow seemed to be typical of folks living out in rural areas were more reluctant to ask for help from the goverment than those living in cities who were used to seeing goverment help being offered to the needy.
(I haven't done any research to see if the interviewer's point was correct or not).
The radio segment was on my mind when the thread about the differences between Canada's goverment and the USA goverment came up.
One of the points made at the begining of that thread was that a large percentage of the Canadian rural population are conservative and feel in line with the conservative USA populace but yet the Canadian goverment was very much so liberal in its policies.
The answer provided by some of our Canadian posters was that the large citys in Canada over-ruled the rural areas and that accounted for the results of a consertive populace being ruled by a liberal goverment.
I was also at this sametime reading a few democrat message boards about the results of GWB being re-elected and one of the posters from Canada made a post about how much simpler the election process is in Canada because they didn't have to deal with the electorial collage system. The popular vote won.
As I pondered all of this I thought about the differences between living in the country side verse living in the city.
I know this part is purely anicdotal but what I thought about is out in the country you get used to doing everything execpt for grading the dirt and gravel road you live on for yourself while in the city you expect the goverment to do things like provide street lights and sidewalks and close fire and police protection and such.
I know there are city tax's collected from the city folks and the country folks to pay for it all. I know property tax's in the city are much higher and such, I am not trying to say city folks get a free ride from the country folks or anything.
The thing I am wondering about is ...does goverment services provided in urban areas cause a mind-set that fosters voting more liberal than consertive?
Is the electorial collage the thing that prevents large urban areas from over-ruling the vote of the urban areas?
Is this why Canada's rural consertive populace is ruled by a urban liberal goverment?
Would the samething happen here in the USA if the electorial collage was done away with and we went strictly by a "one man one vote"?
I admit up front I am not very sharp on this subject and I am wanting some opinions on it.
Thanks
Mr-Pirk
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A proud owner of a Flying Vee. Bestowed by the fine Gentleman VC1111 himself.
The thing I am wondering about is ...does goverment services provided in urban areas cause a mind-set that fosters voting more liberal than consertive?
Absolutely, this was the #1 reason Madison cited for the necessity of the Electoral college.
Jefferson was surprisingly against it but Madison knew better.
As you stated, no electoral college, and due to the huge number of recent "immigrants", their already liberal system is overburdened.
I suspect that in the next few years they're going to have someone akin to Pim Fortuyn who speaks out and ultimately gets gunned down or at least gets shunned by the general populace.
This is why people like Hitlary want a pure democracy, she's already wealthy and knows that the huge number of recent immigrants (legal and illegal) in new york would find the concept absolutely lovely.
Funny thing is, she's already in bed with the TATA corporation in India to outsource more jobs... but remember, she's "for the people" ... he he.
T Farmer Thanks for an intresting post.
I will have to read a little on Pim Fortuyn, I have not heard of him before. Also I have never heard of the TATA corporation before. I also had not considered the immigrant quotent in the equation.
Thanks
Mr-Pirk
__________________
A proud owner of a Flying Vee. Bestowed by the fine Gentleman VC1111 himself.
Maybe we need to change what should be rural controlled and what would be city controlled. A good example would be hunting. City folks have no say on hunting or for that matter gun control.
Hunting takes place mainly in the country not the city.
Crimes with guns happens in both the city and country so we all vote on the need to protect ourselves.
Pim Fortuyn was a "conservative" dutchmen who wanted to limit immigration because their already over burdened socialist system was crumbling under the weight. He got shot down about 2 years ago by recent "immigrants" because he dared talk about taking their welfare away and preventing more freeloaders.
As for the TATA Consultancy, check out "www.outsourcecongress.org" for a primer.
The thing I am wondering about is ...does goverment services provided in urban areas cause a mind-set that fosters voting more liberal than consertive?
Yes...gimme, gimme, gimme...I'm gonna be a liability to society and live off the government and someone else's money, because I'm too worthless and lazy to work for myself.
Quote:
Is the electorial collage the thing that prevents large urban areas from over-ruling the vote of the urban areas?
Yes. The Electoral College is the only thing that keeps the midwest and south, people like you and me, from being ruled by idiots from San Fran, LA, NYC, Chicago...all the gays and minority based places.
Quote:
Is this why Canada's rural consertive populace is ruled by a urban liberal goverment?
Yes. Don't know much about the Canuck's government, but I bet they don't have an Electoral College. I think that it is unique to the United States. There's too many French up there for a conservative government anyways...
Quote:
Would the samething happen here in the USA if the electorial collage was done away with and we went strictly by a "one man one vote"?
Yeah. Why do we have the Senate? To give smaller states some power. Same way with the EC. People who should wanna do away with the EC, should also wanna do away with the Senate, since they were set up for the same reason, and basically, operate the same way in the "distributing powers" sense.
Thank God this country isn't based souly on number count. If so, we would have no Senate...all of the 30 so Red States would be ruled by tree-huggin, city slicker, yahoos.
I admit up front I am not very sharp on this subject and I am wanting some opinions on it.
Thanks
Mr-Pirk
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πνεύμα γ*μισα
"Error never shows itself in its naked reality in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."
-Irenaeus of Lyon
Yes...gimme, gimme, gimme...I'm gonna be a liability to society and live off the government and someone else's money, because I'm too worthless and lazy to work for myself.
It isn't exactly that simple. The cities by default allow for better distribution of social services due to the concentrations of populations, mass transit and so on. However, it does seem that as far as voting the urban centers seem to consistently vote with a more democratic bent at least in some areas.
As far as social programs and being "too lazy to work for myself" that is a rather universal problem that cuts across a variety of social and regional demographics. In other words, it isn't just a "city slicker" thing.
There are also those that are truly down on their luck. I've met a few women whose worthless husbands took off on them - I don't mind helping them out at all.
Biggest problem I see is that these 501C "charity" organizations that use taxpayer dollars are consistently corrupt as hell and literally screw the taxpayers like dogs for the benefit of those "in charge"..
Look at the history of Milwaukee and their inner city charter schools, it wasn't the charter school system's problem, it was the fear of being called racist that allowed a Nigerian who pulled this scam before to afford a lush house and 2 BMW's on the taxpayers in a matter of 2 years.
Recently the OIC has been caught defrauding the taxpayers out of millions -- on one arrested or prosecuted.
Around here that tends to be a major bone in the craw of taxpayers - the constant fraud and waste.
The Electorial Collage
