So what's left of the conservative agenda? Not much. -Paul Krugman

[kpete]

So what's left of the conservative agenda? Not much.

That's not a prediction for the midterm elections. The Democrats will almost surely make gains, but the electoral system is rigged against them.

The fewer than eight million residents of what's left of Red America are represented by eight U.S. senators; the more than eight million residents of New York City have to share two senators with the rest of New York State.

Meanwhile, a combination of accident and design has left likely Democratic voters bunched together — I'm tempted to say ghettoized — in a minority of Congressional districts, while likely Republican voters are more widely spread out.

As a result, Democrats would need a landslide in the popular vote — something like an advantage of 8 to 10 percentage points over Republicans — to take control of the House of Representatives. That's a real possibility, given the current polls, but by no means a certainty.

And there is also, of course, the real prospect that Mr. Bush will change the subject by bombing Iran.

Still, in the long run it may not matter that much. If the Democrats do gain control of either house of Congress, and with it the ability to issue subpoenas, a succession of scandals will be revealed in the final years of the Bush administration.


read the whole thing at:
Paul Krugman @ NYT
http://edstrong.blog-city.com/paul_krugman_the_great_revulsion_the_conservative_tide_is_tu.htm
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[muriel_volestrangler]

1. He makes an important point about the distribution of votes

Even assuming fair counting of votes, the distribution of voters, and gerrymandering of districts, means the Democrats have to beat the Republicans by a large margin to get a majority in the House, or Senate.

[Eric J in MN]

2. It's called "Operation Ratfuck."

After the 1990 Census, Republicans separated black voters into their own US Congressional districts, using the argument that it was necessary for civil rights.

But they privately called it "Operation Ratfuck" (as in DemocRATS) because Democrats do worse when black voters are concentrated in one district instead of being a deciding factor in multiple disctricts.

[greekspeak]

3. The way Americans are represented is terribly lopsided, but anther concern

I have is that we have a limited number of representatives. As the population of the country grows by leaps and bounds, the number of representatives stays the same. Before long, the representative democracy turns into an "elected" oligarchy. Since elections are no longer fair, it is really becoming just a plain old oligarchy--and a rubber stamp at that. The way the senate works is very carefully crafted. However, America has moved on from a primarily agrarian society with planters at the top of the food chain. Maybe it IS time to rethink the senate.

[Stevepol]

4. The voting machine fraud makes a Dem sweep even more unlikely.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. I'll tell you what's left to do for the conservatives.

If our country is EVER to learn from this experience and GROW, the conservatives need to put themselves through a 12 step recovering program. I don't know all the particulars of these meetings but I know if the conservatives held such a meeting it would go like this:

Hi. I'm Joe Dumpywhitemale.

Hi, Joe Dumpywhitemale.

I'm here because I voted for George Bush...twice. Even though I have a college degree, I let others do my thinking for me. I hung around the wrong crowds and listened to radio stations which encouraged me to continue bad habits and patterns. I turned my back on good people who tried to tell me that I was hurting, not just myself, but my country. But now I understand that I was lost and the first thing I want to do is apologize to everyone who I wronged.

I would begin by apologizing to the Clintons, and especially Bill Clinton because I didn't have enough Christian faith to forgive him over the Monica Lewinsky indiscretion. I realize now that all I had to do was to forgive him for lying over a private matter and it would have saved us the pain our country is experiencing because we retaliated by voting for a President who lies about every important public matter.

I realize now that the answers were in my faith all the time; that Christianity is good and that if I had used it to control my pride, my arrogance, my anger and my fears that we would all be in a better place today. But I was false to my religion and my country suffers because of it.

I apologize to the people who I called, "Liberals." I understand now that I crammed everyone who disagreed with me into that one tight label and that it helped me dehumanize them. I did more than just call them names behind their backs, I also did nothing when others told me the stories of how they sabotaged lefties at work or cut them out of business deals. I reveled in their defeat, and for that I am truly sorry, because I now see that we have been divided as a country and conquered by the very same people I once identified with and supported.

Oh, heck, I can go on and on, but Scooter Libby is next in line...

[Inland]

6. How could you leave out the title of the piece?

"The Great Revulsion'. Kick for Prof. Krugman