We are in the midst of a hostile takeover of the levers of power in the United States, something that I keep coming back to - but is also being seen by many others. It is that perception that gives me a modicum of hope:
Nation can't survive system that distorts the majority's will.
Even before the Nov. 8 election, Democrats had already lost more than 800 state legislative seats during Barack Obama’s presidency — a hemorrhage greater than any experienced by either major party since the 1950s, when Republicans saw a comparable reversal of their own legislative fortunes during Dwight Eisenhower’s tenure.
The latest election results provide little evidence that the tide is turning. When the new year begins, Republicans will control more than two-thirds of the nation’s 99 legislative chambers (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is non-partisan), while Democrats will maintain majorities in just 30.
What is significant about this trend is that it is at odds with the electoral preferences of the populace:
But the long-term consequences for representative government may be even greater, especially if the trend toward single-party control continues through 2020.
That’s because even as Republicans strengthen their grip on the legislative process, America’s electoral majority continues moving steadily to the left.
Much has been made of the fact that Trump won in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by more than a million votes. But although his feat is rare, it’s hardly unprecedented; Trump is the fourth nominee to win the presidency with fewer votes than his opponent.
In fact, losing the popular vote has become the rule, rather than the exception, for Republican presidential nominees. In the 28 years since the elder George Bush beat Mike Dukakis in 1988, only one other GOP standard bearer — the younger George Bush, in his 2004 contest against John Kerry — has carried the popular vote in the general election. Democratic nominees won the popular vote in the other six elections.
It comes back to gerrymandering.
n each of the last two election cycles, more Michigan voters cast their ballots for Democratic congressional and legislative candidates than for their Republican opponents. Yet Republicans continue to maintain a comfortable 9-5 advantage over Democrats in the U.S. House, and a 63-47 majority in the Michigan House.
And this gap between voter preference and legislative representation is likely to grow even wider if Republicans continue to dominate the reapportionment process, in which Michigan and other states reconfigure themselves every 10 years into new legislative and congressional districts.
This article is about Michigan, but it is consistent with both the national experience, and the experience in other States. In Pennsylvania
During that decade, Democrats won 22 of 37 statewide elections, largely thanks to dominance in lower-profile races for state Supreme Court, auditor general and treasurer. Republicans dominated legislative and congressional elections, running on district maps they drew to maximize Republican victories.
When the new Legislature is seated in January, Republicans will hold 156 of 253 seats, 26 more than a decade ago.
The Obama/Holder effort to counteract this anti-democratic tendency is going to be vital to restoring citizen control of the country.
President Obama’s ambitious post-...ir of new national redistricting effort.
