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Re:Trump to Sign Executive Order Waiving Key Environmental Laws by mcv on Thursday June 04, 2020 @08:43PM (#23423805)
There's one big problem with this line of thinking: states don't vote. At least, not once you get rid of the electoral college. Once the EC is gone, it's people that vote. So cities don't dominate, people do.

And that's not just semantics; at the moment there are millions of conservatives in California whose vote gets ignored. There's millions of liberals in Texas whose vote gets ignored. Cities are not a homogenous voting bloc.

Re:Trump to Sign Executive Order Waiving Key Environmental Laws by tathougies on Thursday June 04, 2020 @11:00PM (#23424613)
But that is exactly the problem. City dwellers know about city problems. If it's up to city dwellers, they may vote to fund things like public art in lieu of critical infrastructure like irrigation or government weather infrastructure because those things don't seem necessary when you're living in a metropolis, but are vital when you're a farmer.

Or, what if city dwellers choose to do things like burn fossil fuels for convenience and pay no attention to changing weather patterns, etc?

We shouldn't require our required rural brethren to become activists and lobbyists in the city just so the interests of the land can be surfaced.

Re:Trump to Sign Executive Order Waiving Key Environmental Laws by mcv on Friday June 05, 2020 @06:18AM (#23426919)
But that's true for literally every issue. Rural voters are equally less aware of city issues. White voters are less aware of issues faced specifically by minorities. Men are less aware of female health issues. Skewing votes in favour of one group or another is never going to fix that.

The only way to fix it is to ensure that all opinions are represented. A multi-party system with proportional representation will accomplish that much better than a skewed and polarised two-party system.

Re:Trump to Sign Executive Order Waiving Key Environmental Laws by joe5150 on Friday June 05, 2020 @02:58PM (#23432412)
agriculture lobbying is a $140 million industry[1].

public art and infrastructure might be nominal priorities for a presidential candidate, but these decisions are generally going to be made by representatives in Congress, so whether or not the EC exists doesn't really change how these issues are addressed.

1: https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/sectors/summary...