Adam Ruins Everything - Why the Electoral College Ruins Democracy

All men are created equal, but their votes sure aren't. Adam explains how location impacts your voting power.

In Adam Ruins Everything, host Adam Conover employs a combination of comedy, history and science to dispel widespread misconceptions about everything we take for granted. A blend of entertainment and enlightenment, Adam Ruins Everything is like that friend who knows a little bit too much about everything and is going to tell you about it... whether you like it or not. 

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Adam Ruins Everything - Why the Electoral College Ruins Democracy

[jakeglenn]

The sheer elevation of this man's hair.

[CaptainDoomsday]

It's kind of upsetting how many people are (grossly over)paid to not-necessarily perform a job that has no real need to exist.

[obnoxiousNoxy]

Not-so-fun fact: Even Nixon tried to get the Electoral College abolished, but that bill was eventually killed off by a filibuster.

[chimpanzees]

"people in Ohio like LeBron James" "who? I don't know many actors"

[tartandspoongaming]

“Hey I’m cooky, I have two turtles”
I thought Adam was going to say:
“It gets worse. I have three turtles.”

[brovahkiin]

The people not knowing what a republic, a direct democracy and a representative democracy are should get out of the comment section.
But that would probably leave like 20 comments...

[asauce]

"I don't know, many actors" lol, I see what Adam did there

[Remiel]

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” ― Benjamin Franklin

[WatchingVee]

"Actually, in 24 states, they can vote for whoever they want."
Me: "Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, KANSAS?! GOD DAMNIT!!!"

[soulsurvivor]

"I'm the Governor's rich Cousin" :-)

[samgilley]

The electoral college was designed to prevent the country being represneted soely by heavily populated areas that lean heavily one direction politically (HEM HEM CALIFORNIA)

[AA]

I don’t get how pointing out that we are a Constitutional Republic makes this any better. Constitutional Republics still place the power of government in the people and rely on the votes of those people to elect representatives, so a system that makes voting against the establishment pointless and takes power away from almost half the people of a state is still government breaking.

[brafshsyt]

Imagine thinking America is a Democracy

[theedgyskrub]

1:15 "I think the fact that the entire election is determined by just a handful of states is really messed up. For one thing, it means presidential candidates can ignore almost the entire country. " That's hilarious Adam, let's look at some 2016 election statistics.
2016 Elections County Results:
Trump: Around 2600 counties
Hillary: Around 500 counties

Yes, because if we had it where only the popular vote mattered, everything would be balanced and not at all determined by the big cities only. I mean, some of those counties that Hillary won are the most populous counties many of which have some of the top 30 cities such as NYC, LA, and Boston. Heck, even cities in Republican states, such as Dallas, Houston, and Austin, and Louisville voted democrat. The largest city, isolated from its county/counties, to vote for Trump was Oklahoma City, number 27 of the most populous US cities. The counties for Jacksonville and Fort Worth also voted for Trump, and are higher on the list, but the cities themselves voted for Clinton and the other areas in the counties won the vote for Trump.

The point is that if we solely depended on the popular vote, then a candidate only needs to appeal to the cities to gain a serious lead, and doesn't need to appeal to the rural areas as much, meaning we could potentially run into a situation similar to Russia's where the government only really cares about the European part of the country, and doesn't really care about Siberia, because the population is in Europe, not Siberia.

[Hoppensagen]

Yeah, throughout history pure democracies are very simple, and horrible; the founders were very aware of this when they decided upon how elections would be done.

[Nobody-zqbl]

We don't have a democracy. There's a reason we don't have a democracy. 🤦‍♂️

[floofboi]

You had me at "I like bbq, Blake Shelton and abortions, y'all"

[andreparra]

Welcome to 2020. You know the system is horrible but a bunch of people who refuse to progress and actually move on with the rest of the world say no

[amnion]

"The electoral college means candidates can ignore almost the entire country."
*gets rid of electoral college
"Now candidates can ignore almost the entire country in a different way."

[lilkimchim]

Thank you 7th grade Social Studies for teaching me this.