Much ado about nothing

The new Congress looks almost exactly like the last

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The problem for America is that the GOP has effectively ceased to function as a political party. Instead, it is pursuing two strategies that are actually unconnected except by expediency. The first strategy is to talk about fiscal discipline while pursuing policies that would enrich their donors (the big corporations and the very wealthy). The second strategy is to rely on religious types for the majority of votes (because there aren't enough rich people and corporations can't cast votes). The assumption - apparently correct so far - is that religious types aren't generally capable of "doing the math" and will reliably vote based only on their perceptions of "morality" which today seems to mean ever-more intrusion into the lives of individuals in order to impose right-wing religious orthodoxy on everyone. So these religious people will vote for candidates who promise to "simplify" the tax system (e.g. make them pay more so that the wealthy pay less) because (i) they don't understand the numbers, and (ii) they think they are voting for a Christian version of sharia law.
Romney may have lost this time around, but it was damned close. The USA seems to be splitting into two nations. One is educated, liberal (in the American sense), and at least thoughtful enough to try to work through the math. The second is uneducated, highly religious, and cares only about imposing their doctrinaire "morality" on others. Perhaps the time is approaching when, instead of thinking about "one America" we will begin to think about partition instead. People used to joke about the East and West coasts forming a union with Canada. In twenty years that may not sound like a joke at all but instead like a very good idea. The nation's wealth, after all, is largely created within those States that would fit in rather well with Canadian values. As for "folks" in the center of the country, they too would likely find a return to a purely agrarian way of life to be quite congenial.


Time to take the drawing of Congressional districts out of the hands of the politicians. Both sides do it when they can and need to be stopped. The excuses of drawing boundaries to protect minorities is a bad thing. All Americans are Americans


It appears that the popular vote for the Republican majority in the House was 49.74%, against 50.26% for the Democrat minority. Approximately: the votes weren't all counted when this was posted, and third-party, independent, write-in-candidate, and informal votes are not included in the analysis.﻿

Joe Marlowe

The numbers may be roughly the same, but the dynamic is not.

The Republicans put their all into preventing President Obama from being re-elected. They failed.

If the Republicans now behave in the same obstructionist manner that they have done for the last four years, they are going to face a tidal wave of anger in two years' time - when the President will not be running for re-election and will be able to turn the machinery of his campaign team toward winning back the House.


As the GOP shifts further to the right, their geographic distribution is likely to become further concentrated in the bible belt.

Simple as that.

True_North in reply to Komarov

Try explaining "legitimate rape" to your wife or girlfriend. See how that works out for you.

These are not gaffes. These comments exposed the sheer ignorance and lack of intellect of these candidates. On those grounds alone, they deserved to lose.

Brian Pelican

Obama had better learn to negotiate if he wants any part of his agenda to emerge from the House.

Any legislation which contemplates raising tax rates on any group will die on the vine.


Those two senatorial candidates who lost because of gaffes about abortion show that a lot of people are influenced by matters of really little importance. We all make gaffes from time to time; the "legitimate rape" phrase was obviously a mistake for "genuine rape" or "rape properly so called" and voters should have been intelligent enough to judge it so. There may have been legitimate reasons to vote against those candidates, but not every slip is Freudian.

True_North in reply to Brian Pelican

Why does America tolerate such crap? Why can't you guys have independent electoral commissions like the rest of the free world? I don't even understand how America can claim moral leadership on democratic issues any more with its banana republic elections. Seriously, India has more orderly and uncorrupted elections than America.

Democrats won over 53% of the popular vote and Republicans get a solid majority in the House? How is this kind of result possible without massive gerrymandering? And yet House Republicans claim they have a mandate on par or greater than Obama (who actually won the popular vote).

True_North in reply to Brian Pelican

Nonsense. Did you sign the Norquist pledge or something?

If the Republicans refuse to play ball, the USA goes over the cliff. And poll after poll (which Republicans refuse to believe before the election) show that Americans are more likely to blame Congress than the President for going over the cliff.

So they go over the cliff. And the cliff becomes the new baseline. Now the Republicans will get to explain to the public why they are voting against tax cuts for the Middle Class (proposed by the Democrats) because they are tying them to tax cuts for the 1%. Watch how that plays out in the polls.

Cool Beans

This gerrymandering has gone for two centuries. If Republicans are abusing it now, Democrats may very well tilt it to their favour 10 years down the line when the new census comes out. It seems reasonable to leave the redrawing of districts to nonpartisans or at least set some standards based, perhaps on some dispassionate mathematical/socio-spatial models to help alleviate this problem. But again, given the partisan blowhards that populate this polarized house, it will be an uphill battle and probably very low down in list of priorities.

Brian Pelican in reply to thispaceforsale

And I assume that the redistricting of the 6th district in Colorado where a republican majority was threatened by additional democrats is A OK?

The idiots one finds with very simple minds. You just followed TE's provocative statement blindfolded.


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