Kamala is on track to be the next American president. She presents a striking contrast to Trump on every count and will win the office by a record margin of Trump’s three runs to date.
The US Presidential voting system is highly undemocratic. It was designed that way for now redundant reasons, albeit they never had much merit in the first place.
Consider the all-important upper chamber, the Senate. This comprises two representatives from each of the 50 states. Thus Wyoming with circa 550,000 people has two representatives and California with circa 40 million people also two.
So too with the presidential election system. Clinton won three million more votes than Trump in 2016 but, due to the system, lost.
The same anomalies prevail in New Zealand, Britain and many other Western democracies. There’s a rationale behind it but it’s still basically undemocratic.
Thus a rural vote carries a lot more voting power than an intense urban vote, such as one cast in Ōtaki as against one in South Auckland.
Following the last British election a cry has arisen for an MMP system, such were the anomalies. Put simply both the American and British systems, for different reasons, favour the political right.
But so glaring is the contrast between Harris and Trump I sense a landslide victory for her, despite the system’s distortions.
One is a highly educated public office-holder, the other an astonishing ignoramus who relies on lies and personal abuse, is a convicted rapist, a property developer who not a single US bank will lend to, and so on and on.
If I was an American it goes without saying, holding right wing political and economic views as I do, I’d vote Republican. But not this time, rather I’d contribute financially to the Democrats, give them my vote and help remove Trump once and for all before his inevitable prison sentence as his career swansong.
This article was originally published by No Punches Pulled.
