America's minority rule problem is deadly

[applegrove]

America's minority rule problem is deadlyBetween the pandemic and gun violence, the death toll from America's minority rule problem is staggering

By AMANDA MARCOTTEAPRIL 16, 2021 4:54PM (UTC)

https://www.salon.com/2021/04/16/americas-minority-rule-problem-is-deadly/

"SNIP.....

The doom loop consists of four interlocking components. Candidates who represent white conservatives—Republicans, in our ideologically sorted era—begin every election cycle buoyed by a sluice of voter suppression and gerrymandering (what I call electoral welfare), which makes it easier for them to win. Then antidemocratic features of the American system that have always existed but never benefited one party over the other in any systematic way help those same candidates take control of institutions such as the White House and the Senate, despite winning fewer votes and representing fewer people than their opponents. Once in control of these institutions, these newly elected officials use them to entrench their power beyond the reach of voters. If they are eventually voted out of power, they retain a veto over the agenda of the majority, which they use to block change and feed the conservative case that the government is "broken." This hastens their return to power—along the very path they greased with voter suppression.

Right now, we're in stage three, where Democrats were able to marshal enough forces to overcome the significant structural barriers to majority rule to win technical control of the government. But Democratic helplessness to pass gun control legislation is a cold reminder that Republicans, despite being walloped at the ballot box, retain most of the power in this country.

Yes, President Joe Biden was able to get an important coronavirus relief package passed through Congress on a party-line vote. But on the vast majority of legislative priorities for Democrats — gun control, climate change, voting rights, health care — Republicans have the final word, due to the filibuster. That word is consistently "nope," with a side dose of "f*ck you" to the majority of Americans who voted against the GOP. And with Republican-controlled state legislatures rapidly introducing a bunch of bills to disenfranchise voters further, it may very well be tha we're entering a new era when Democrats can't even technically win elections, despite having the majority support among Americans. 

And it's even worse than that passage from Jentleson indicates, because Republicans also have captured the courts through sleazy means, holding judicial seats open during Barack Obama's presidency, only to rapidly fill them when Donald Trump got elected. As Ian Millhiser of Vox argued in a recent Salon interview, the result is Republicans can go around the legislative process entirely to force their agenda on Americans who keep haplessly voting against them. 

.....SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Someone get this to Joe Manchin.

[colsohlibgal]

2. Amen

The Electoral College which gave us Trump....way more people voted for Hillary.

Then the makeup of the Senate.....States with fewer people than some Cities get the same two Senators that States like say NY and California, with more people than many Nations get. One Senator for very 400,000 people some States, one for every multi millions in Heavily populated States.

Minority Rule to be sure.

[crickets]

3. K&R for visibility.