TIL : why the founding fathers set up the electoral college.

The electoral college was created to prevent the so called "manipulation" of the public by a tyrant.

Wow. Just wow. I, like most, knew there were people who voted that way , but I never expected to hear someone defend it. That saddens me.

For some people politics does not fall on the top of their priorities list. Should it? Perhaps it should fall higher on their lists of things to do. But for those who are working full time jobs, dealing with families, kids, their car, their mortgage, etc some things fall by the wayside. Simply because somebody votes according to basic platforms they hear does not make them stupid, lazy, or any of the other negative things that you may be thinking about them. They are simply busy people.

As to your second point , maybe the candidate who is against food stamps has a good plan to make things more readily available for you to afford without assistance, you wouldn't know because you didn't listen. How can you know their platform without listening to them. You can't judge off of party. There are many pro-choice republicans, anti-union democrats. There are spectrums within both parties. I'll pick a moderate of either group before an extremist of the other.

Sure a candidate can be against food stamps and have a plan that is better. But no self candidate would frame their platform in such a way. That would alienate voters from them NOT get them more votes. This however only really works for fiscal issues. On the hand of social issues it's a little more black and white. I'll just use gay rights as an example, someone who is gay would be unlikely to vote for a candidate who does not support gay rights or is flat out against gay rights even if they are a better candidate. There's no alternatives here, doesn't matter if they are the better candidate their social stance will hurt you.

You are absolutely right there are spectrum within a party and it is advantageous to look into what a specific candidate supports before casting your vote. And this is definitely key for smaller elections.