I see a lot of comments comparing the crazy of the Republican party to the crazy of Democrats and asking why Republicans are never held accountable for their crazy. Why is it always the Democrats that have to explain?
Two reasons: 1) Republicans have their own media ecosystem. It's insulated from reality.
I see a lot of comments comparing the crazy of the Republican party to the crazy of Democrats and asking why Republicans are never held accountable for their crazy. Why is it always the Democrats that have to explain?
Two reasons: 1) Republicans have their own media ecosystem. It's insulated from reality.
But FAR more importantly: 2) Republican voters are HYPER-EFFICIENTLY distributed. Our constitutional system disproportionately favors rural counties and rural voters. It always has. This distribution is a major reason Prohibition was passed. It was favored by heavily rural, white Protestant counties, not the urban, more Catholic districts. They punched then, and punch now, far above their weight. This distribution is the reason we have to care about the down-and-out rural voter. If they didn't punch above their weight electorally, we could ignore them the way we often ignored urban black voters.
Republicans have a greater margin for error than Democrats, and this will continue to be true as long as their voters are disproportionately rural.
Democrats cannot win rural counties. But they can try to stem some of their losses there and be more competitive in the suburban districts. Biden lost rural counties by less than Clinton in 2020. Lots of religious, socially conservative/moderate, pink collar or working class voters living in suburbs. Plenty of folks who are socially conservative and went to college. These people do not want to pay more in taxes. They do worry about crime. They care about inflation.
You have to play the game you've been given. Stop longing for the game as you wish it to be. Stop pretending that the playing field should be even. It's not, and it won't be within our lifetimes.
Everything here is correct but what I think politicians should and will do is different. It makes more sense to juice turnout in urban and suburban environments. It’s just more cost effective. Should republicans running for president campaign in California or focus on Wisconsin? The answer is clear.
Or you know we could just try to update the antiquated and no longer relevant laws governing the electoral college and gerrymandering so the vote of someone living in Wyoming isn’t worth 6 times as much as someone living in NYC or Atlanta. That way our elected representatives might actually (gasp) represent the views of the majority of the people living in the country instead of pretending that the current price of gas and criminalizing abortion are much more important issues than making sure that our politicians uphold the constitution and we aren’t terrified of sending our kids to school.
I see a lot of comments comparing the crazy of the Republican party to the crazy of Democrats and asking why Republicans are never held accountable for their crazy. Why is it always the Democrats that have to explain?
Two reasons: 1) Republicans have their own media ecosystem. It's insulated from reality.
But FAR more importantly: 2) Republican voters are HYPER-EFFICIENTLY distributed. Our constitutional system disproportionately favors rural counties and rural voters. It always has. This distribution is a major reason Prohibition was passed. It was favored by heavily rural, white Protestant counties, not the urban, more Catholic districts. They punched then, and punch now, far above their weight. This distribution is the reason we have to care about the down-and-out rural voter. If they didn't punch above their weight electorally, we could ignore them the way we often ignored urban black voters.
Republicans have a greater margin for error than Democrats, and this will continue to be true as long as their voters are disproportionately rural.
Democrats cannot win rural counties. But they can try to stem some of their losses there and be more competitive in the suburban districts. Biden lost rural counties by less than Clinton in 2020. Lots of religious, socially conservative/moderate, pink collar or working class voters living in suburbs. Plenty of folks who are socially conservative and went to college. These people do not want to pay more in taxes. They do worry about crime. They care about inflation.
You have to play the game you've been given. Stop longing for the game as you wish it to be. Stop pretending that the playing field should be even. It's not, and it won't be within our lifetimes.
Everything here is correct but what I think politicians should and will do is different. It makes more sense to juice turnout in urban and suburban environments. It’s just more cost effective. Should republicans running for president campaign in California or focus on Wisconsin? The answer is clear.
Or you know we could just try to update the antiquated and no longer relevant laws governing the electoral college and gerrymandering so the vote of someone living in Wyoming isn’t worth 6 times as much as someone living in NYC or Atlanta. That way our elected representatives might actually (gasp) represent the views of the majority of the people living in the country instead of pretending that the current price of gas and criminalizing abortion are much more important issues than making sure that our politicians uphold the constitution and we aren’t terrified of sending our kids to school.