Re: Help design the ideal Presidential candidate

In article <slrng289et.5rk.wnoise@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 Aaron Denney <wnoise@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> > Every state in the south that had a referendum on secession passed it
> > by a large margin.
> 
> To borrow your phrase: So what?
> 

His argument is weak, but not as weak as you make out. If a large 
majority of the men supported it and we have no reason to think the 
women held strong views in the opposite direction, it is likely that a 
large majority of the whites supported it. If a large majority of the 
whites supported it and the whites were 2/3 of the population, it is 
likely that a majority of the population supported it, even though we do 
have reason to expect blacks to have a different view on the subject 
than whites. 

The argument obviously runs into trouble in states where the blacks were 
a majority, if there were some, as there well may have been. And it runs 
into a more fundamental problem in treating majority vote as if it were 
unanimous consent. As you have suggested, the same argument that implies 
the state can secede from the union implies that the town can secede 
from the state and I from the town.

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, paperback in bookstores now