Senate vote totals are revealing

[FreeWheatForever]

As of 8am this morning:

Senatorial Candidates:

Democratic 44,900,466 56.8%

Republican 32,908,523 41.6%

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/us/elections/calendar-primary-results.html

[Achilleaze]

1. The usual KGOP republican stinkeroo

America really does not want republicans in any way, shape, or form. But the republicans and foreign allies against democracy have their skeazey occult ways.

[UCmeNdc]

2. This is the next big fight. How do we change this?

How do we get the power of the senate control back?

[BannonsLiver]

34. The 2020 senate map is more favorable for Dems

This was an extremely challenging map this cycle, unusually so. I think we have a decent shot in 2020 to get it back, along with the WH.

[KPN]

3. Even the House vote totals don't accurately reflect

the balance in that chamber. Democracy is being/has been hijacked. This is and has always been (since 1980) a coup d’etat.

[still_one]

9. Change will come to the House more quickly than the Senate. In key red states there were

propositions on the ballot that called for an independent non-partisan commission to determine redistricting, and those propositions passed.


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/gerrymandering-has-voters-incensed-how-fed-constituents-are-fighting-back-n896536

[KPN]

19. Yeah, that's a good thing for sure. Though I'm quite sure the GOP will work hard to find some

way to stack the independent non-partisan commissions regardless. They will not let go of their grip easily. Certainly, laws alone won't make them. It will take focused watch-dogging and then enforcement.

The Senate will be a difficult one. How do we deal with a construct that is counter to the basic "one person one vote" concept in the first place? My view is things will need to get substantially worse for the average person before things get better politically and democratic ("all men are created equal&quot governance-wise. That is, if they get better. I'm trying to be optimistic about that, but people disappoint me no end.

[still_one]

20. no doubt, but hopefully we will fight that every inch of the way if that happens

[rzemanfl]

4. Bookmarking for after I wash my socks. n/t

[still_one]

5. That is the problem, but for those that think that will be able to be changed I think will be in

for disappointment. It would take a Constitutional amendment. Highly unlikely.

What needs to be done is the Democrats will need to fully embrace a Howard Dean 50-state strategy. There will be Democratic candidates in red states that won't align with the party consensus on some issues, and that needs to be understood and worked with. Change in those states will occur, but it won't be overnight. West Virgina is not California. We push the issues we can agree on. Healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, infrastructure, Civil Rights, minimum wage, etc.

[Hortensis]

12. Well, 2020 is a census year, and both our house majority

and the 7 additional governorships we picked up will go a long way toward un-gerrymandering a good part of this electoral corruption.

Looks like we'll have 23 governors and Repubs 26, compared to 16 and 33 right now.

We've gained some important ground in midwest states. I'm looking forward to a full summary of all our gains in state legislatures that are currently controlled by Republicans or held in a split.

Plus, there are all the gerrymandering and other election issue cases in the courts.

But one election at a time. This one isn't over, and when it is our people will be newly empowered and have big work to do in many governments across the nation.

[still_one]

13. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Hortensis]

15. And we may get an 8th gubernatorial win in CT!

48.4 to 47.1% with 93% counted.

Fingers crossed.

[still_one]

16. WOW, that turned around then. I missed that one. Crossing my toes also

[Hortensis]

27. Oh, thanks for the reminder about the toes. :)

Analysts Charlie Sykes and David Jolly both said this morning that we actually had a very good night last night, that our expectations had wandered off course and we should be very pleased.

Besides our big, real goal, a house majority, in "the upper midwest" we won 7 out of 8 key governorships and senate seats in PA, OH, MI, WI, all states the GOP must win in the electoral college to hold the presidency in 2020.

[still_one]

28. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Hortensis]

6. I'm going to memorize the final totals to

insert in every conversation that touches on politics.

[joshcryer]

7. We need a damn relocation program.

Just relocating a million liberal voters would flip all these states.

[Achilleaze]

8. Russians Meddling in the Midterms. Busy. - NYT

Article in this morning's New York Times

They haven’t stopped trying to influence our elections.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/opinion/midterm-elections-russia.html?emc=edit_th_181107&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=479430271107

"...a senior analyst for our cybersecurity company, suggests that while these measures may have rendered some of the Russian tactics of 2016 less effective, they haven’t fully stopped Russian influence operations. In many instances, they seem to have merely caused Russia to shift or develop new tactics..."

[yardwork]

11. The propaganda aimed at white voters continues.

The caravan of refugees, for instance - a story designed to stir up fear among rural and suburban whites.

Lots of false stories on social media about Democrats supposedly planning to do outrageous things. Lots of lies that low-information voters believe.

[KPN]

21. Makes me embarrassed to be a white person frankly. How sad that a majority of us are such

small minded, self-serving people. What is wrong with us ... especially the so-called "Christians"?

[zipplewrath]

10. This is a real problem

The shifting demographics of the country, combined with the structure of our federal government, are empowering a minority over the majority. A country cannot last for long in this arrangement. The House was supposed to represent the population, but it no longer does. Gerrymandering is a big problem, but so is the fact that the smallest states have a disproportionate representation because they get a minimum of 1 congress critter, so California has to give them up. And there are two senators for every state, so large states end up vastly under represented.

We have a President elected by a minority over the majority vote. We have a Senate that represents maybe 30% of the population and yet controls majority power. We have a Supreme Court that represents and extremely small point of view of the population, and yet for decades has managed to maintain power. This cannot stand. And unfortunately, the possible solutions are not pretty.

[KPN]

22. Recipe for disaster -- or at best, indentured servitude over the long haul.

[zipplewrath]

31. Revolution

The minority will tend to abuse their power in an attempt to maintain control and ensure benefits for themselves. The majority will chafe and typically revolt, usually violently. Look at Northern Ireland in the '70s.

[KPN]

37. Yup. And frankly, I believe we are ultimately headed there. 45 is just the latest and greatest of

a long series of attacks on American democracy (ergo, Americans) by the GOP. This has been building for decades. I believe things will get worse before they get better (hope I'm wrong, but hard for me to be optimistic in the face of what I've seen and experienced in the course of my lifetime).

It used to be two steps forward, one step back. Now it seems it is one step forward, two steps back.

[zipplewrath]

38. Really our whole "life"

We're a country founded on Enlightenment principals by a bunch of very racist men. We have worked hard to expand our democracy to include all humans, but it is still run on a constitution designed to keep white male landowners in control. We've tinkered a bit with it, in part to try to let in blacks and women. But we've also tinkered with the system such that the majority isn't needed to control government. The changes that need to be made are ones that the original authors made almost "unchangeable".

[beachbum bob]

14. doesn't matter the totals, matters where the votes are

[elocs]

18. Absolutely right!! It's like a losing World Series team claiming that their scoring more runs

in the games played than the winning team that it is somehow meaningful as a result of their blowing out the other team in a couple of games. It matters where the runs occurred.
Just because Democrats can run up a big score in states like California doesn't make the grand vote total meaningful when the elections are in individual states or individual districts. Even the presidential election is not a national election vote but a 50 state election vote.

[Thew]

23. we aren't talking about runs

we are talking about representation. The government is increasingly out of sync with the population and that poses real problems long-term.

There aren't easy fixes for the senate as it's constitutionally "gerrymandered", we could pursue statehood for Puerto Rico, Pacific territories and DC to help balance.

The house needs to be increased in size, if our unit of measure is Wyoming, then the house is about 24% too small.

[FreeWheatForever]

32. With all the political and procedural factors understood

The fundamental structure of the US government not withstanding, of the 77 million people who had the opportunity to vote in a US Senate race nearly 57% chose the Democrat. The 2020 Senate map will be more to the Dems liking. These numbers portend a brighter future for all.

[KPN]

24. True -- if you accept the current construct as best.

Not sure 41.6% of votes determining the make-up of SCOTUS over the other 58.4% is best. (That doesn't include ANY of the suppressed votes). Feels like oppression.

I'm beginning to understand better my kids' contention that our votes don't really matter and they never will until we blow the whole frigging system up. Maybe they are right.

[The Mouth]

33. Or chess

If you checkmate me, it doesn't matter if I had more pieces on the board.Complaining about that after the fact just makes me look like an idiot who didn't understand the rules.

It's like hearing people say 'we ought to change the electoral college'- hello- it is *NOT* going to change without either a revolution or constitutional amendment, and about 30 states would LOSE influence without it, so anyone thinking it's going to happen is flat out too stupid to understand anything about American politics.

[jcgoldie]

17. As Bill Maher says...

Why the fuck does South Dakota get two senators?

[KPN]

25. Gotta love Bill Maher sometimes!

[RockRaven]

26. The nature of permanent state boundaries make voter representation in the Senate inherently unequal.

Also, this data needs to be taken with a grain of salt if one is going to use it as an argument about unfairness -- this year the CA Senate general election was Dem vs Dem (after a "jungle primary" ) so every single vote cast in the Senate race in the most populous state went into the same category.

[snort]

30. Hmmmm.

What would be the consequence of the Senate being voted in by the electorate as a whole, like the President?

I think the Senate should be balanced by population and not state, forget about the nice round number 100.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

36. Like the President? You mean we should have the Electoral College pick Senators?

It would be another form of the same imbalance in voter influence.

[dlk]

29. There is a Serious Lack of Integrity in Many Voting Areas, Not All, Just Enough to Ensure R's Win

We all have heard evidence of voting machines flipping totals, how easily many of them are hacked, how many polls are moved or closed, how many hundreds of thousands of voters are purged from the rolls, how many thousands of votes are pulled and discarded. What is it going to take for us to collectively address this clear and present threat to our democracy?

[Garrett78]

35. Tyranny of the minority is wonderful, ain't it?