Ezra Klein published a really succinct, lucid and important article in the NY Times explaining the dilemma which faces the Democratic Party today.
The Republicans are a cohesive, homogeneous army of older, rural white men and women who can take concerted action and win elections, whereas the Democrats are a coalition of people who are unlike one another.
But beyond that, the founding fathers were not sold on democracy and put in place structures to prevent rule by popular will.
As he points out by 2040 70% of the US population will live in the 15 largest states and be represented by 30 US Senators, while 30% of the population in the remaining states will be represented by 70 Senators. If those numbers sent your head spinning, think of it this way: One third of the nation, mostly rural, white and conservation will have an unbreakable lock on the US Senate to make it serve their narrow interests.
And that means the Supreme Court will be locked into a conservative mindset.
And the Electoral College, which reflects the same geography and tumble weed over population, will ensure that "Republicans consistently win the presidency despite rarely winning the popular vote, where they typically control both the House and the Senate despite rarely winning more vote than the Democrats..Down that road lies true political crisis.
In the past, Mad Dog has half seriously suggested we divide the nation into the Coasts and some selected states like Minnesota and Colorado and New Mexico and allow the Confederacy and Cowboy states to form their own slave owning states.
But, as Klein suggests the truth is even the Blue states are liberal, urban patches with Alabama in between. Pennsylvania is the prototype--but Virginia, California, Washington and Oregon follow the same pattern.
Business is doing well in America. Tech is doing well. Finance, too. But politics is rushing headlong into oblivion.
No comments:
Post a Comment