A RedState WYite/Dakotan/Alaskan Has 40 TIMES the Polit.Power In The Senate As A BlueState Cali/NYer

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

6. But The Structural Disadvantage Against Democrats In The Senate Is Pronounced

Last edited Mon Feb 3, 2020, 12:57 PM - Edit history (1)

...and worsening, because the nation's political divide has grown increasingly geographic, and that geography has been urban vs. rural. Predominantly rural states tend to have lower populations than more urban ones. So most of America's numerous predominantly rural states are Red, and are trending moreso.

In 2018, for example, the Democratic candidates for Senate received more total votes in the 35 elections than did the Republican candidates. But we lost 1 senator, net, all the same. Similarly to how in 2016 Clinton won by 2.9 million votes but the highly undemocratic structure of the electoral college negated that expressed will of the American people.

Another good illustration is the numbers of state governments in which the governorships and both legislative houses are controlled by a single party. The current count is 16 Democratic to 22 Republican - up from 15 to 23 last year and markedly improved from the collapse to 5 to 25 just 3 years ago. That said, in 1977 and 1978 Republicans fully controlled only 1 state government in the nation, to Democrats' 27; and as recently as 1993 Republicans fully controlled only 3 state governments.

Most Americans live in Blue States. But today most governors live in Red States, most single-party controlled governments are of Red States, and most U.S. Senators are from Red States. All of those current patterns have manifested from the same underlying, very difficult-to-reverse, and growing urban v. rural political trends.

The competitions for control of the Senate, the White House, and by extension the Supreme Court, are all now structurally weighted against Democrats. The trends for these imbalances are getting worse, not better. Presidents getting electoralcolleged while being rejected by voters hadn't happen in 111 years... before 2000. Now it's happened 2 times in 5 elections and very seriously threatens again this year. The entire terrain has shifted towards this happening often.


I'm not posting all this as some sort defeatism. Of COURSE we fight like hell every single election, overcome the structural obstacles, and do our very best to win in spite of everything aligned against us.

But when the playing field is slanted one is bettter off knowing it... and knowing where it's slanted, and how much.