听力文本

Well, that's the way was established by the founders
这是该制度的创立者规定的
There certainly plenty of people who find it not entirely democratic
肯定有人认为这种方法无法完全体现民主
and there been a lot of arguments made to get rid of it
很多人说应该废除这种选举制度
One thing I should say though
但我要说的是
I'm trying to avoid opining myself getting my own opinions
正如我再怎么努力表现出客观不被个人观点左右
and it's impossible to be totally neutral
我还是无法做到完全中立
right, I know no one can do it but that's sort of my goal
我想没人能做到，但我的出发点是想做到客观的
So I guess I'm reluctant to say
所以我不愿意评论
If I think it's a good idea or a bad idea
这种制度到底是否公平合理
If you want to talk in public. I'll tell you what I think
但我可以告诉你一些公众的观点
but I don't wanna come down on one side or another
我不想倾向任何一边
I wanna talk about how republicans see it and how democrats see it and try to be neutral
我可以从共和党人和民主党人的角度告诉你他们的看法，我会尽量客观地去分析
but you certainly all right there very strong argument against this
但我知道在座的各位心里其实都是有自己的想法的
and it favors states that vote republican in general
这套体系总体上是对共和党有利的
now we have Vermont, we have Delaware, they have three
佛蒙特州，德拉华州都是3票
District Columbia has three
哥伦比亚特区也是3票

So there are some eastern democratic voting areas
尽管这都是东部的民主党支持区
They get a little bit of favor
对民主党有些好处
but we have while Hawaii here at four
但夏威夷有四票
but it's overall it does help the republicans
这套体制总体上是对共和党有利的
there's no doubt about that. yes？
这毋庸置疑。请提问！
Yeah, so the question is the conventional wisdom is if you win a few swing states
他提到了一个人们普遍的想法，如果候选人在一些摇摆州获胜
Pennsylvania 21 electoral, votes Ohio 20, Florida 27
如宾夕法尼亚州，有21票，俄亥俄 20票，佛罗里达 27票
These are states with a lot of electoral votes very rich,
这些州的选举票数都很多也较为富裕
and they tend to be right on that sort of the razors edge and that then becomes the key
他们的倾向常摇摆不定，因此他们被认为是获胜的关键
it's been a long time since any candidates have tried to campaign in 50 states
已经很久没有总统竞选人在50个州都举行拉票活动了
Richard Nixon tried it in 1960 and it didn't help him at all
1960年尼克松尝试过，但那对他毫无帮助
and so really the conventional wisdom is don't try to do this
所以人们普遍认为竞选时不应大范围撒网
Figure the states you would get, if you got real great chance of winning, you can sort of ignored
思考你可能夺下的州有哪些，如果你在该州获胜几率很大，你就无需再大费周折地拉票
Interesting Minnesota，here this has been the most democratic voting state
有趣的是，明尼苏达州它一直坚定支持民主党
for the last half century and it shows somewhat weak for Obama
已长达半个世纪，但奥巴马在该州支持率并不高
视频及简介

本课程结合大量地图，探索了美国总统大选（包括过去和现在）中的地理学，并且对仅仅简单把美国分为红州（共和党）和蓝州（民主党）这一说法提出挑战。现实中，美国社会两党的情况，远比这种简单的两分法要复杂。