Jan 092020
 

The Republican Reich is an ever shrinking minority party.  They get votes from the voters they represent: billionaires, Corporate Criminals, racists, religious bigots, homophobes, misogynists, fascists, deplorables, white supremacists, and every kind of hate monger I forgot to list.  They also get votes from people they do NOT represent but hoodwink into thinking they do.  More and more are seeing through their lies.  That leaves their party with two choices: they can steal elections, or they can lose elections.

0109crusader-kkk-trump

These have not been good times for Democrats wanting a fair shot at representation. The Supreme Court’s 2012 decision to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act was the beginning of a series of rulings rubber-stamping just about every tactic the Republican Party has come up with in its comprehensive war on voting rights, which includes everything from voter ID laws to voter purges to making registering voters all but illegal to partisan gerrymandering.

So when Democrats get any kind of victory in this ongoing battle, as they just did on Tuesday [article from 9/4/2019], it’s a remarkable development. And it shows one path for them to overcome a Supreme Court that is determined to make sure Republicans can continue to rig elections in their favor:…

Proving the effect of partisan maps, it should be noted, is precisely what the Supreme Court said was impossible to do when it ruled two months ago that the federal courts have no business even trying to judge whether any gerrymander is too partisan, no matter how much it discriminates against voters from one party… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Samantha Bee knows!

Full Frontal Rewind: Make Voting Fair Again

 

I love the way she makes painful truths funny!

There are two other problems that need attention:

First, the Electoral College gives unfair advantage in Presidential elections to rural states with low populations.  A voter in Wyoming gets three times the electoral representation that one in California does.  But to ratify a Constitutional Amendment  to fix it, would require the support of those states that gain unfair advantage from it.  The solution is a National Popular Vote.

Second, the plurality takes all voting system makes it virtually impossible for independent and third party candidates to get votes without helping the major candidate with the opposite ideology.  For example, Republicans have volunteered for and financed Green Party Presidential candidates (Nader and Stein) on two separate occasions, so that the Democratic Candidate lost enough support in key swing states to allow GW Bush and Trump to steal the White House.  The solution is Ranked Choice Voting.  It allows people to vote their conscience, and vote strategically too.

RESIST!!

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  6 Responses to “Samantha Bee: Make Voting Fair Again”

  1. Love Sam. 
    W/watch later, thanks,Tom. 

  2. I’m in favor of the sorting hat myself. It knows so much more than even the best informed voters. But if I were Dumbledore, I would certainly not trust us to borrow it.

    But seriously, the National Popular Vote Compact is something that is getting to be within reach, and we all should find out whether our state has adopted it (mine has), and, if not, what can be done to get it there.

    Ranked choice voting I also support, for exactly the reason TC gives: “It allows people to vote their conscience, and vote strategically too.” IIRC it goes into effect in Maine in time for this year (and could help get Susan Collins out – although as “beloved” as she ISN’T, it might not be needed for that.) Anyway, it’s something to watch for.

  3. The National Popular vote, by all means. The last Australian election has taught me that Ranked Choice Vote has it’s drawbacks too. The right-wing parties were not above dealing with their second choices, i.e. an influential 1% miner spent millions of his own (well, his sacked employees’ money) on ads that were one big Trumpian attack on progressives, also instructing his voters to rank the right-wing coalition second, as he had promised that party, and any other party on the right next and Labor last. He didn’t win his seat but helped the right to their victory. It’s really tough for progressives to win an election when the right sticks and plots together, and when the left doesn’t.

    • Sadly, no matter how good a law is, Republicans will find a way to cheat it.  In ancient Greece, Republicans beat term limits by selling their representation to rich special interests in return for cushy jobs, when their terms ran out.  13

  4. Thanks and TGIF Hugs to all! 29

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