Monday, October 12, 2015

How do Republicans keep winning the House when they are so out of touch with the voters?

On immigration, on abortion, on Planned Parenthood, on gay marriage, on war and defense budgets -- Republicans are out of step with the majority of Americans, as shown in poll after poll.   So why do they keep winning elections to congress?

Because of gerrymandering of House districts by Republican-majority state legislatures.   According to the New York Times, in 2012 Democrats cumulatively won 1.4 million more votes but lost control of the House, with 201 seats to the Republicans' 234 seats.

That's how they do it.   Increasingly those seats are safe for incumbents because they are custom-designed to favor their party candidate.   So don't expect the 2016 election to change who controls the House, no matter how crazy-out-of-touch they have become.

You have to admit:   Conservative Republicans were very very smart a decade ago when they designed their comeback strategy to begin at the grass-roots level.   They elected Republican majorities in state legislature, as well as Republican governors -- and then they redrew the lines of the congressional districts to set up safe districts where Republicans could easily win.   That gave them control of the U. S. House -- and it's going to be hard to get it back until we start winning back those state offices.

Ralph

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