Ezra Klein spells it out, an important reminder that our undemocratic constitution is becoming disastrous. To put it succinctly, Democrats need to win by margins of 5 to 8% to win the presidency, the senate, or the house, because of the structural concessions made to the slave states in 1789, and the concentration of Democratic voters in cities. As Klein concludes:
A party that adapts to anti-democratic rules will quickly become a party that fears democracy. A party that knows it can’t win a majority of the vote will try to make it difficult for majorities to vote, and have those votes count. A party that isn’t punished for betraying the public trust will keep betraying it.
If Republicans were more worried about winning back some of Biden’s voters rather than placating Trump’s base, they wouldn’t be indulging his post-election tantrum. It would be offensive to the voters they’re losing, and whom they’ll need in the future. But they’re not, and so they have aligned themselves with Trump’s claims of theft — with profoundly dangerous consequences for America.
Trump is not in the White House, refusing to accept the results of the election, because America is polarized. He is there because of the Electoral College. Mitch McConnell is not favored to remain Senate majority leader because America is polarized. He is favored to remain Senate majority leader because the Senate is the most undemocratic legislative chamber in the Western world, and the only way Republicans seem to lose control is to lose successive landslide elections, as happened in 2006 and 2008.
And that's why the Republican party caters to an extremist, racist, anti-rational cult. Because they can.
If you really don't know what Joe Biden's policy positions are (ha ha) you can find them all, in detail, right here. It's not a secret.
1 comment:
And now Charles Koch--!--is talking about building bridges?
Mostly, the world is nuts.
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