>>>I probably have more in common with someone in Sweden than with someone in Alabama or even southern New Jersey.
>
>I met some fine people in Birmingham, Alabama. But I also saw some old slave housing still in use.
>

I had some excellent business dealing with southerners.
I was shocked to learn that they didn't use lawyers for real estate sales. They exchange the check and the deed and shake hands.
However, I can't imagine myself living below the Mason-Dixon line.
It's another world.

>>>We might think that it's a good idea to make those people do things our way, but that kind of thinking is the height of arrogance and it's what got Trump elected.
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>I "get" why some HRC supporters feel dismay that she won the popular vote and still got trumped. But pretty much any system with electorates can disconnect popular vote from victory. The US is a bit different in deliberately weighting some votes more highly than others. I don't think you'll get anybody volunteering to copy that and when systems do change, usually it's to introduce party voting or similar mechanisms so that people still get to vote for local reps but party seats are determined by its share of the popular vote. Also worth noting that Prime Ministers aren't voted on by the public at all, but are selected by the winning party/coalition.

This was a key sticking point with the founders. Our system is what they landed on as a compromise - thanks largely to Benjamin Franklin.
You get these oddities when certain precincts, usually in the inner cities, go heavily for one candidate.
Obama, for example, got over 98% of the vote in some precincts in NYC and Phila, but those precincts got no more weight than ones that split 51-49.
That seems to have happened this year.