PMSL! That's brilliant!

Well what a productive and polite answer. So insulting someone personally is the highest expression of the tolerant mind ? I often wonder why the extreme left and extreme right are so comfortable in attack and insulting mode ?

In any case you made point which I admit I hadn't considered that "illegals" is now a term that is considered negative in the PC world. I will definitely bring this up to some "undocumented foreigners" if that is an acceptable term and see their reaction. I can almost guarantee they will find it another strange thing they encounter in America. I know quite a few " undocumented foreigners" as they often need help in translations and other matters- it is very odd you consider a term negative they use themselves.

If my comment that "undocumented foreigners" use the term "illegals" themselves annoys you it may well be that at least concerning Mexican "undocumented foreigners" you perhaps don't know many that is all. I frequently will hear them using that term between themselves.

I also appreciate your posts whether I agree with them or not. I actually look forward to intelligent posts from either the right or left as an opportunity to learn from different points of view. Joining this thread has been instructive .Maybe if the left tried to open their mind and understand the right better, and vice versa, perhaps we would have ended up with two better candidates.

This is such an absurd situation. First we hear his kids will run the family business, now they want security clearance at the same time ?

When Glenn Beck says the altright is truly terrifying...we must be in an alternate reality.

Glenn Beck: The alt-right is truly terrifying - CNNPolitics.com

Popular Vote vs Electoral College Vote.

It occurred to me today that it really isn't that significant who won the popular vote, because the candidates fully understand the system and chase the electoral votes. If the system changed to one of popular vote determining the winner, then they'd adjust their tactics. EG - they'd campaign a lot harder in places like CA, NY, etc and pretty much ignore the low-population states. Even if a republican knows he's going to lose CA, he would still be obligated to chase votes there, and a Democrat would have to chase votes in Texas.

I'm not saying it would be a bad thing to change over to Popular Vote; I'm just saying, you can't read too much into the popular vote historically because different priorities existed.

I believe that's basically the point of the electoral college - to stop candidates focusing all their efforts on the population centres and ignoring the other 95% of the country. The electoral college may well be the best way to deal with a country as vast and diverse as the US.

Yes .... but, if the United States was to aspire to be a democracy sometime in the future, surely the candidate who won most votes should be the winner? One person one vote and all that. Radical, I know....

I say the hell with all those empty places where nobody wants to live. Why the heck should they have disproportionate political power?

Like the Uk?

I do not see long term how a Republic can survive, US is I think the only one to do so, an oddity.

There is no process when the different branches lock for anything to change, well aprt from maybe in the next election.

I vote for this.

Or would if it counted.

This is one of those areas where I can see both sides. I'm pissed off that my vote in CA carries far less weight than it would if I lived in a smaller state, but at the same time I do see the point that if votes carried equal weight, the government could essentially ignore the needs of people in the smaller, more rural states.

I'm not convinced that going with the popular vote would necessarily be the right answer. Maybe a system where the electoral votes could be split according to the percentages in each state?

Switzerland?

Switzerland is a one off, not sure I fully understand it, but not a Republic.

.... the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities.

The Swiss system is very different to the US

The Republic of South Africa, formed in 1960 and survived longer than many anticipated.

The Republic of Iceland - 1944.

Oh and how about France?