Republicans now have full control of 24 states, and they've got some ideas for what to do with that power. For instance, rather than do the work of crafting policies that voters like, they're hoping to rewrite the rules for how states back a president. From the National Journal:
Chart: Mother Jones
Click for more charts about gerrymandering.
"If you did the calculation, you'd see a massive shift of electoral votes in states that are blue and fully [in] red control," said one senior Republican taking an active role in pushing the proposal. "There's no kind of autopsy and outreach that can grab us those electoral votes that quickly."
The proposals, the senior GOP official said, are likely to come up in each state's legislative session in 2013. Bills have been drafted, and legislators are talking to party bosses to craft strategy. Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, has briefed Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Chief of Staff Jeff Larson on his state's proposal. The proposal "is not being met with the 'We can't do that' answer. It's being met with 'I've already got a bill started,' " the official said.
States are allowed to decide for themselves how they allot their votes in the Electoral College. In addition to Michigan, the National Journal cites the GOP as especially determined to act in Florida, Ohio and Virginia. Along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, those states all voted for President Obama but have Republican majorities at the local level. As you can see in the charts here and from Mother Jones, Republicans have drawn congressional and state legislative districts so that it takes more votes to elect a Democrat than it does to elect a Republican. H/t Matt Yglesias. (On the show: GOP crossing a new line.)
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If they can't win, they'll cheat.
Katherine:They ca'nt win it, buy it or supress it so they have to change the rules. The GOP has become a third world party.
And they're getting ready to make the US a 3rd world country.
Meanwhile, liberals keep giving in to Republicans. Obama withdraws Rice and will offer up Kerry giving the Senate seat to Brown. Then Dems in the Senate will forego filibuster reform and in four years there will be a huge vacancy rate of judges, especially liberal leaning one.
You have to give Republicans credit for one thing. They play to win and they take no prisoners. And they utilize the fact that Americans are dumb as dirt and liberals are useless as barbed-wire underwear when it comes to fighting. Hey, do you think Republicans would flinch if Mitt Romney were President with 47% of the vote and Obama with 51%. Not a chance in hell. Dismantling of the safety net would begin forthwith.
Liberals simply refuse to win. Liberals simply refuse to use power. Democrats are going to piss away their victory. Obama will piss away his victory. They do it every time.
This is a fait accompli. Republicans WILL do this and in 2016, we'll see a Republican get the win even though he got much, much fewer votes than the Democrat. This is the cost of liberal fecklessness at all levels of government.
It's for this type of situation that we can not take the mid-term and state elections for granted. I've seen a lot of comments on this board along the lines of how the Republican party is dying (unfavorable demographics, unpopular platform, etc.), yet because of gerrymandering and control over so many states, they will continue to be able to rig the system and push their agenda to the detriment of us all (e.g., right to work in Michigan, anti-abortion measures at many states, etc.). Let's not forget that some of the voter suppression schemes they tried this time around will be in effect for the next election.
I used to be of the opinion that one should vote for the best candidate regardless of party affiliation, but considering that Republicans vote strictly along party lines, I will never vote for another one again.
I can't imagine anyone paying attention since the beginning of Clinton's first term having any misconception about voting for any Republican. These people are not good for the country.
Never vote for a Republican. Never.
When Rachel talked about this new GOP idea, I'll tell you, it scared me to death.
They may well do it, and it could work. Never, ever, ever vote for these lying, cheating Republicans.They will turn America into a third world country. It will be a Plutocracy.
This makes me want to tell liberals not to go around banning guns, since it's the other side that is armed, and the day may come when there's only one way to deal with these traitors.
Not only that, but how many Democrats currently in office might lose their seats when up for re-election if they vote for any type of gun control?
They are truly determined to take over this country and turn it into a Plutocracy!
We have to be so vigilant against this treachery! I believe they will do this.
Creating a very divided country.
Wonder where they will put the Mason-Dixon line this time?
The idea is to isolate cities.
Are you old enough to remember Berlin fifty years ago?
I was there when the wall fell
Dragoon, #4 "Where will they put the Mason/Dixon line?"
Maine.
"Win" the White House? More like steal it. With the changing demographics of this country, the Republicans see their chances of winning the White House, or pretty much anything else in a fair and open election, get more remote with every passing day. This is their attempt to grab as much power as possible and ram through as much legislation to their advantage as possible before they are run completely out of the political scene. They have said it themselves. There aren't enough white males left to keep them in power for much longer.
Anyone have any suggestions for how to thwart these efforts? I live in Ohio and would like some advice, please.
First, there is nothing you can say to the elite weathy folks, they support the CONS dictatorial agenda. What is possible is to engage your neighbors and friends in serious conversations that questions why they support the CONS. Their responses will not, more often than not, reflect reality. I find that when they are questioned primarily and consistently why they support the GOP and their policies that directly affect them, as middle and working class, women and people of color, their religious values etc. I have found that direct questioning after their responses work better because often times they just repeat nonsense, nonfactual talking points based not on common sense reality but pure hatred, bigotry and a false reality. Remember, when one's beliefs are questioned, not criticized, reveals their true character....no one accepts a losing belief system easily......their answers to relevant questions make them think about those beliefs.....give it a try.
This should be on every news outlet in the U.S. but it won't be.
The Democratic party in general and Team Obama in particular should be ashamed of themselves for taking 2010 off.
Now if we could just talk the Democratic Party into working hard in 2014 we might be able to deal with some of these problems.
I feel that the Republicans have realized that they can do more "good" at the state level than they can ever do at the national level. Now one man's good is a whole stateful of harm but hey I'm not a republican.
What took you so long?
Progressives, liberals, centerists, anyone who pouted through the 2010 cycle, good luck trying to reap any corn from the weeds y'all let take over the hustings when you were too pissed off to vote.
It wasn't just progressives/liberals/centrists, and frankly I think that some of these GOP not crazies are going to rue what they have allowed to fester within their midst! See, the one thing that the GOP does is tell you ahead of time exactly what they're going to do - the people didn't listen and didn't pay attention to the bad acts that were going on - they voted them in on rhetoric! So now they'll get exactly what they deserve for NOT paying attention!
"This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. - Ben Franklin"
Fantastic comment!!! The problem is that people are so stressed and working harder to make ends meet, they don't pay enough attention. This country's problem is the GOP fox viewing conned that are motivated by bigotry and hatred that think what these CONS are doing is anti american and their agenda affects them as well as democrats. These republicans are bent on destroying the safety nets, SS, medicare, medicaid etc., who in their right mind think these same folk care about the working middle class? Six and Seven year old kids slaughered while at school yet it is the GOP reps that say more guns are the solution....wake up!!!! These folk care about power and control, not democracy, majority rules for the betterment of All!!!!
It is time for the SCOTUS to revisit voting law and gerrymandering. That could happen if Obama gets to appoint more justices.
The Republicans have had this obvious (bold) and effective strategy since Obama was elected 2008. Where have the Democrats been?
Some of them were home pouting because they didn't get their ponies before the midterms. More were home snoozing because they were paying no damn attention and really did think Democrats had it all sewn up in 2010 without their votes. And, based upon voting data for the last three quarters of a century, a significant number of Democrats are either entirely unaware that their are elections in even years between presidential elections or else have no idea that those boring elections have consequences.
They were all scared to death to mention the AFCA. They all slithered into their holes and let the President fend for himself. Now that it and the Pres.are more popular they want to hitch themselves to his coat tails but it's a little or a lot to late, the damage is done.
The Republicans have forgotten history including that history of their own party. When Al Smith, a Catholic, ran for president in the 1920's, the Republicans pursued the same strategy. They used Catholicism as a way to frighten the rest of the voters. That is why immigration quotas were enacted in the 1920's. The Republicans and the Southern Dems were able to use the issue as a way to keep their power in the state and local governments. Their hold on power came crashing down as Catholics became a majority and Kennedy was elected.
Only 30 more years! That's comforting.
The DEMS were blaming Obama and the DEMS rather than the CONS in 2010....the year of the 10 year census, now we suffer from this disingagement. The sane stayed home and the insane came out and voted for these radical theocrats that tarnish religious tenets, sensible governance that allowed the nonsensical right control and power.......they are showing what they will do with it.....2014 can reverse this electorial lunacy!!!
Mike P.: Thanks for noting the immigration quota policy of Republicans in the 1920's. Anti-immigration was the founding platform of the original Republican party and they have stayed true.
@bluesmokeandmirrors, yep one might think that the GOTP were actually "the first inhabitants of this nation, instead of the immigrant descendants that they actually are.......
One man, one vote.
This is what I've taken to calling the "apartheid-ization" of the U.S.
Republicans are doing nothing less than plotting and planning for minority rule of the majority. It's not going to be pretty.
What really won't be pretty are the steps that will be required to fix what is happening. Should the Republicans follow through on their plans, they will have destroyed the possibility of further peaceful transfers of power. They are sowing the seeds of a future long, bloody uprising against Republican domination. That's not a threat, or a call to arms. I don't have to threaten violence or call for revolution. It will happen regardless of what anyone wants or demands should Republicans get their way. It is simply a matter of historical fact that sooner or later that people revolt when they have no voice.
If they like this idea so much, why don't they start with Texas?
(That was rhetorical, and I know the actual answer.)
It wouldn't bother me if they divided Florida's Congressional EVs in proportion to each candidate's votes, with two votes for the statewide winner; I'd settle for Florida having a permanent ~16-13 split in favor of the GOP, and not having to worry about it ever again. What the GOP is clearly after is getting a share of the EVs in states that they reliably lose in Presidential elections, and Florida isn't one of those states. I'd also be OK with a more-or-less even split of Ohio, for the same reasons. The key thing with FL and OH is to not let the EVs be determined by Congressional district: EVs should be beyond gerrymandering.
(Virginia isn't one of those states either, yet, but it seems headed in that direction; I wouldn't say that about FL. So the GOP desire to split up VA's EVs surprises me less.)
But with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, the GOP is clearly out to swipe EVs that they have negligible chances of winning by the traditional winner-take-all means. And that's a real problem.
Again, if they were willing to apply the same plan to Texas, and maybe Georgia as well to balance out the EVs at stake, I'd be OK with that. But they're not interested in doing this in their own states.
They will lose their choke hold on the states soon. People are starting to see what is going on as the right legislates freedom away and installs a theocratic dictatorship.
You're way, way, way more optimistic about the public than I am. This is going to be done before most people understand what's afoot.
Heaven forbid they should change their terrible policies or their attitudes toward people who aren't white men, and actually gain some votes that way. No, their only strategy is gaming the system.
They've gotten away with this much, I don't see this being a real issue. Just another mess created by republicans another Democratic president will have to clean up.
Dems lost 2010 because citizens still think that Presidential elections are the most important. People are not educated adequately about our political system. They aren't really educated about much in our country anymore. You have to have cash to let your kids play sports or dance or play an instrument. This was a given, when I went to elementary school. Now the people who can afford such things can give their kids a well rounded education, and the poor are idle. I live in Ohio, and it is the worst about educating it's citizens. The league of women voters don't do anything to help with pressing issues. You already know how the Republican - voter suppression Sec. of State worked out. People are informed on the issues through sound bites, personal prejudices, and ridiculous radio announcers. Big changes have to happen with our society. Starting with Corporations are people!
The Republicans have always had a long game. Presidency, House and Senate are all important, but their ground game has always been at the Statehouse and gubernatorial level. When they grab effective control of a state, besides abortion rights, their focus is on changing the rules of the game in their favor, especially if they take control after a Census re-apportionment, which locks in their gains. And the swing states are where they try to entrench these rule changes. In addition, very few states have enough "blue" areas to overcome the overwhelming "red-ness" of the rural and suburban areas. For example, Omaha and Lincoln, NE may be blue, but that gets diluted by the vast red majority of the rest of the state. Of course, it goes the same when Dems get control, but fewer times does that happen during re-apportionment time. Repubs are typical winners during off-year elections, and the Census takes place in off-years.
Also, this can become a be-careful-what-you-wish-for if gerrymandering is eliminated. In many blue states, the proportion of Dem seats is inflated when districts are created to dilute red strength.
Just for kicks, how many EV's are those 24 states worth? Is it even near 270??
They don't have to be. They just have to be enough to swing those states Republican, then they plus the reliably GOP states will add up to enough to do the job. The idea isn't to 'win' the presidency with just those states; just to shift them permanently to the Republican side of the ledger.