Scary stuff from Slate "The Real Threat to American Democracy Isn't Russia. It's the Right."

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/the-real-threat-to-american-democracy-is-the-right.html

A week ago, Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, brought some attention to a growing threat to the integrity of our elections. “By 2040 or so,” he tweeted, “70 percent of Americans will live in 15 states. Meaning 30 percent will choose 70 senators. And the 30% will be older, whiter, more rural, more male than the 70 percent.” Two days later, the Washington Post’s Philip Bump ran a check on the numbers, citing an analysis of Census Bureau projections from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. “In broad strokes,” he wrote, “Ornstein is correct.”

[In 2040] eight states will have just under half of the total population of the country, 49.5 percent, according to the Weldon Cooper Center’s estimate. The next eight most populous states will account for an additional fifth of the population, up to 69.2 percent — meaning that the 16 most populous states will be home to about 70 percent of Americans.

[…]Ornstein’s … point is clear: 30 percent of the population of the country will control 68 percent of the seats in the U.S. Senate. Or, more starkly, half the population of the country will control 84 percent of those seats. His tweet goes further, suggesting that the demographics of those states will differ from the larger states, as well, and, therefore, so will their politics.

In short, beyond holding an advantage in the House even before the recent wave of Republican gerrymandering, the most conservative regions of the country—places more white, more male, and more rural than the country at large—have and will continue to hold a lock on the United States Senate that will grow ever more absurd as the the country’s actual population centers grow, a situation that grants them a veto over legislation that the majority of Americans might want, and the power to shape or shrink government programs and initiatives disproportionately needed by women and minorities living in less conservative states.


snip - sobering read. Check the rest at the link above

[highplainsdem]

1. K&R

[rockfordfile]

2. Both are the same.

[BadgerMom]

14. Exactly. The right has aligned with Russia.

It's not one or the other. They're working in concert. That's why the Republicans don't check Trump's actions. I think American oligarchs are pushing this because of greed and racism. I think it's being sold as righteousness and white supremacy to evangelicals and other willing followers. We have to kneecap Fox somehow. It's the mouthpiece of the oligarchy.

[TrishaJ]

25. And the religious groups

could not win on issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage in the courts, so they are aligning themselves outside of our system to another system they feel will remedy their losses, as in strong man fascism.

[roamer65]

32. The RW flying monkeys love Russia because it is fascist, majority white and fake Christian.

[krispos42]

3. Vast concentrations of people into metropolitian areas...

...including their attendant suburbs, it something that I doubt the Founders could foresee to this extent, as there was no historical precedent for it. The harnessing of coal and the concentrated power it held vastly changed the world of transportation, allowing twice as many people in New York City (all 5 boroughs) as existed in the original 13 states after the 1st Census.

They should have done either of the following:

a) Limit states to, for example, 12 Representatives, so states that became densely populated would be forced to split up into smaller states, of which each would have 2 Senators; or
b) Give states the greater of 2 Senators or their number of Representatives divided by, say, 6. If you rounded down, California would get 8 Senators, Texas would get 6, New York and Florida 4, and Illinois and Pennsylvania 3 each. Everybody else would stay the same, adding 16 Senators. If you rounded up, California would get 9, Texas still at 6, New York and Florida get 5, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio would get 3. That would add 20 Senators.

[Puzzler]

4. K&R

-Puzzler

[Hamlette]

5. we gotta get rid of Fox News

problem is, a new one will start up so it has to be concentrated.

maybe take their five top advertisers to start. Scare the others.

Without Fox, these people won't have an easy way to get their hate. Otherwise we are doomed to several more Trumps or Pences.

[appalachiablue]

9. That occurred to me earlier tonight, until Fox News is dealt with, nada...

Trying to counter the steady, growing 30-year impact and toll, takes a huge amount of effort and resources.

The influence of Fox and extreme media, the NRA, the oligarchy, far right hate groups and growing unrest from economic and social issues is gloom, but the way it stands until and if things really start to change. Hopefully they will.

[workinclasszero]

23. Unfortunately Fox "news" has metastasized

Sinclair Broadcast Group:

Sinclair Broadcast Group is a publicly traded American telecommunications company that is controlled by the family of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, the company is the largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations, and largest by total coverage; owning or operating a total of 193 stations across the country (233 after all currently proposed sales are approved) in over 100 markets (covering 40% of American households), many of which are located in the South and Midwest.

Sinclair also owns four digital multicast networks (Comet, Charge!, Stadium, and TBD) and one cable network (Tennis Channel), and owns or operates four radio stations in the Pacific Northwest. Among other non-broadcast properties, Sinclair also owns the professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor and its streaming service Honor Club.

Sinclair has faced scrutiny from media critics, as well as some of its station employees, for the conservative slant of their stations' news reporting and other programming decisions, and how the company's rapid growth has aided its dissemination of content that appeal to these views.

Sinclair has also faced criticism over business practices that circumvent concentration of media ownership regulations, particularly the use of local marketing agreements, accusations that the company had been currying favor with the Trump administration in order to loosen these rules and about its management lacking diversity and being totally controlled by a single family.

Critics including former news anchor Dan Rather have described Sinclair's practices as being "an assault on our democracy" by disseminating what they perceive to be Orwellian-like propaganda to its local stations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group

[Joe941]

31. Yup we needs laes that ban fake new like fox.

[AlexSFCA]

6. that'a why we need 50 states strategy

there is no way around it.

[appalachiablue]

8. +1 Yes.

[Garrett78]

12. A large chunk of the population is vehemently opposed to principles that...

...Democratic candidates would have to abandon in order to win them over (leading to more infighting within the Democratic Party). Unless one buys the notion - and I certainly don't - that Republicans are motivated by their economic anxiety (as opposed to racism, sexism, etc.) and that Democratic messaging is the reason we aren't winning in places like Idaho and Wyoming.

So, while a 50-state strategy sounds nice, it isn't necessarily practical. Not without first undoing a whole lot of brainwashing.

[AlexSFCA]

15. at the very least we must capture swing states

florida, ohio, wisconsin, michigan, north carolina, maine, iowa - those need to be solidly blue. Texas is in the making. Arizona should be rock solid blue but it’s not yet.

[Garrett78]

21. Sure, it's all about who can win key battleground states.

And which states are battleground states changes over time. While Ohio may be lost for a long time to come, Democrats may turn AZ or TX or GA into swing states.

[LiberalLovinLug]

7. It is important to remember

That Russia and Putin only helped Trump and the GOP win, they are not the architects of Republican policies and bills. Trump could care less about how it effects the American people and Putin as well of course. But Putin only jumped onto a moving train. Election fraud and voter suppression had been already a staple in the GOP handbook. Maybe even machine tampering. They don't just bring one knife to the fight, they bring a thousand. And those small and big cuts all combined can defeat even the most ardent competitor.

[appalachiablue]

10. Important points and distinction.

[Garrett78]

11. "65% of Americans believe in establishing the popular vote as the method for electing presidents"

But, to Ornstein's point, those 65% are concentrated in far fewer than 38 states, the number needed to ratify a constitutional amendment.

We must find a way to combat this tyranny of the minority system we have.

[True_Blue]

13. Hillary would've won if we went by the popular vote

Gore too for that matter. The popular vote seems like it would make it much more difficult to steal elections.

[Garrett78]

17. Yes, but my point, of course, was about the difficulty of getting rid of the electoral college.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. Please Check out the Popular Vote Movement

CT was the last state to get onboard.

It's one way. Succeed or fail - it's a good Try.

And yes, I support the idea and I'm thrilled NJ is onboard.

[marlakay]

16. I guess we have to find a way

To spread the population around. Create liberal communities and towns large ones in the unpopulated states and basically take over.

I heard Silicon valley was looking for rural states not so expensive to live.

[roscoeroscoe]

27. Right!

I'm with you, except that I won't move to the South. Sorry. Can I go to, say, West Virginia?

[marlakay]

28. I think I could do Idaho or Montana

very beautiful there and I could just travel in some of the winter months. Wouldn't take many for some of the small states we could easily take them but I wouldn't go unless a community was planned.

I have lived in red areas before and its tough, it would take a large community to fight back.

Someone needs to make a plan and start gathering people and buying up land.

[Celerity]

18. we could expand the number of House Reps (and thus the number of EC voters) and distribute

the new members much more fairly, (which also gives the huge Blue states a much better and fairer shot in terms of representation) BUT WOW, the Senate (and thus the supreme Court) is going to be a nightmare in the somewhat near future it looks like.

Great (but disturbing) article, big REC.

[mountain grammy]

19. K&R

[Scurrilous]

20. K&R

[octoberlib]

22. It's been this way for a long time.

The Kochs have Professors at George Mason and other universities who teach that democracy is a horrible system and a corporate authoritarian style of government is the best for America. The Koch funded Freedom Caucus was formed in part to make Congress look dysfunctional by voting no on everything.

[Garrett78]

24. What's the argument for each state having the same number of US Senators?

It seems to come down to this notion that tyranny of the minority is better than tyranny of the majority.

Would the least populous states (Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, etc.) be all that harmed by having a Senate that is proportional like the House is?

[Solly Mack]

29. K&R

[colsohlibgal]

30. Sadly That's True

I constantly ponder what the difference is between republicans who have no use for that bloated idiot and those who would obviously support him if he shot some one on 5th Avenue in NY.

We are at a critical moment maybe our last chance to stop this rush to fascism is coming in 2018 and 2020.