Republican War On Democracy-- Losing But Still Not Vanquished

In an interesting, unsigned piece in The Economist this week, The Failure of Gerrymandering, the point was made that "Ever since district borders in America’s House of Representatives were redrawn in 2011, Republicans’ share of seats has exceeded their proportion of the vote. In 2012 Democrats won 51% of the two-party vote but just 46% of seats." However, "the Congress that began on January 3rd, however, has no such imbalance. Democrats won 54% of the total two-party vote-- and also 54% of House seats. Whatever became of the vaunted pro-Republican bias?"

Although Democrats won a comfortable majority in 2018, had they won the same share of votes in 2016, they would have remained in the minority-- even while winning the popular vote.

Indeed, in 2016, their structural advantages meant Republicans could expect to be over-represented in the House of Representatives unless the Democrats won 59% of the popular vote, a better showing than either party has had in the post-war era.

In 2018, however, the Democrats needed just 53% of the vote to overcome Republicans’ structural advantage. This is because the electorate has changed in the Trump era, mostly in ways that frustrate Republican efforts in 2011 to control their electoral fortunes through gerrymandering.

America’s political geography is shaped by education. In presidential contests the most influential voters are whites without college degrees, who cluster in “swing” states. By contrast, in House elections, white college graduates are unusually valuable, congregating in suburban districts where both parties are competitive.

Donald Trump has rearranged American politics, by courting working-class whites and alienating educated ones. That helped Republicans win the presidency. It should have hurt them in the House. But in 2016 the party got the best of both worlds, because many conservative whites with degrees split their tickets. In states whose presidential winner was never in doubt, they chose Hillary Clinton. But perhaps because they expected her to win and wanted a check on her power, they backed House Republicans in narrowly decided districts.

That changed in 2018, when educated whites abandoned Republican House candidates. Because Democrats were already competitive in suburbs, they needed only small swings. They won 13 of the 15 Republican-held districts where a majority of white voters have college degrees. That made the Democratic vote more efficient. In 2016 the party won 17 seats by single-digit margins; this time they took 40.

And what about gerrymandering, widely thought to protect incumbents? Republicans did draw the borders of more districts than Democrats did. But they only ran the process in 37% of seats. Of the 42 seats the party lost, it had gerrymandered just nine.



Those nine seats, however, show that extreme gerrymandering is risky. Many Republican mapmakers tried to neutralise Democratic voters by burying them in suburban districts full of educated whites. They never imagined that this ruse would backfire, but Mr Trump drove these once-loyal Republicans into Democrats’ arms.

Terrie Rizzo, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, yesterday: "This day is long overdue for millions of Floridians. These people have paid their debts to society and deserve to have a say in the future of their state, and their country. We will be working hard to expand the electorate in Florida and earn the support of these new voters." I was worried when Florida's neo-fascist new governor-elect and the Republicans in the state legislature started getting funny about the results of Amendment 4. First look at these results:

It's going to probably mean over a million new voters, many of then not especially GOP-friendly. Florida was one of only 4 states, the others being Kentucky, Iowa and Virginia, where convicted felons do not regain the right to vote after serving out their sentences. Amendment 4 was designed to automatically restore the right to vote for people with prior felony convictions-- other than convicted murderers or those who committed felony sexual offenses-- on completion of their sentences, including prison, parole, and probation. The victory for Amendment 4 was massive-- 64.55% to 35.45%. Compare that to Rick Scott's win in the Senate race (50.1-49.9%) or Ron DeSantis' win for governor (49.6-49.2%). 5,148,926 people voted to allow felons to regain their right to vote, over a million more people than those who voted for Scott and DeSantis (who both opposed the amendment). The potential to change politics in Florida is enormous. It seems like Republican politicians woke up to that after the vote and started moving against what they call "implementation," although the amendment seemed clear enough that no actual implementation was needed. But it was just part of the GOP's national assault on democracy and there was a growing concern that the Republican-dominated state legislature was finding ways to "slow-walk" the process, although most normal people exactly understand why there even was "a process," since the amendment was written to just kick in automatically; end of story. Alan Grayson told me to just turn off the noise and not to worry because the GOP couldn't do a thing about it-- not even with a legislature and a governor in their hands. He was right.

As of yesterday as many as 1.4 million former felons regained the right to vote, overturning a 150-year-old law that permanently disenfranchised people with felony convictions. Until yesterday more than 10% of Florida's adult population was not eligible to vote. Yesterday, Mark Young, reporting for the NY Times wrote that "Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett said he won’t know for sure until later this week, but he doesn’t expect his office to be inundated with former felons looking to get registered. However, he is prepared to begin approving those registrations when asked. 'This is no different than any other philosophy when it comes to this office,' Bennett said late Monday. 'We make it as easy as possible for everyone to be able to vote.'" State Republicans are still not ready to give up though-- nor will they ever be. "[T]wo months after the election," reported Young, "the electoral waters remain muddied at the state level. The law requires that a former felon has completed all of his or her sentencing requirements, including probation, parole and/or restitution.

Right now, there is no communications link from the state to election officials to verify that is the case for every voter looking to register. Bennett said, for now, it will take some personal responsibility on the part of the potential voter to ensure they are not committing another felony by illegally applying to vote.

“Unless we know for a fact that you have not completed those requirements, I’m signing you up because I have no way to verify if you paid restitution or are off probation,” Bennett said. “If you check the box and are willing to commit a felony, then there is the personal responsibility.”


Bennett said there wasn’t anything special his office had to do to prepare for Tuesday’s law to go into effect, but he said state officials needed to work hard and fast toward making some clarifications. While murderers and sexual predators will remain ineligible to vote under the new law, Bennett said those crimes still have some interpretation issues to resolve, as well.

“Is DUI manslaughter a murder? What are we talking about here?” Bennett said. “If you have someone who is 17 and 15, is that a sex crime that keeps you from voting? I would rather have some clarification from the state.”

Newly elected Gov. Ron DeSantis agrees, but wants the law to go back to the legislature. Bennett said the Florida Secretary of State’s Office can clarify how the law is ultimately interpreted.

“I know the governor wants it to go to back to the legislature, but it doesn’t need to,” Bennett said. “I would have a problem with that. Clarification can come from the secretary of state and if it does, I think we have plenty of time to ensure those who are eligible to vote have the opportunity to vote under the law before the next election cycle.”

Nick Cave Doesn't Believed In An Interventionist God-- So Who Would He Blame Sandy On?

Crackpot religionist charlatans are different from Nick Cave. He writes songs and sings for a living. Crackpot religionist charlatans make their livings by frightening feeble-minded people about unknowable supernatural forces, spirits and gods.

God is systematically destroying America. Just look at what has happened this year.

There was an incredible heatwave and drought that destroyed massive amounts of the crops. This drought has not let up and now covers about 65 percent of the country.

The drought triggered record forest fires in the West.

The East was not affected by the drought, but now the most powerful hurricane on record is heading directly towards Philadelphia and New York City. It could do catastrophic damage to the entire Northeast!

If you add the area of the drought and now the hurricane together, it would be about 80 percent of the country! As I said, the Holy God of Israel is systematically destroying America right before our eyes.

Just last August, Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans seven years later, on the exact day of Hurricane Katrina. Both hit during the week of the homosexual event called Southern Decadence in New Orleans!

Hurricane Sandy is hitting 21 years to the day of the Perfect Storm of October 20, 1991. I write about this in my book as America Has Done to Israel. This was the day that President George Bush Sr. initiated the Madrid Peace Process to divide the land of Israel, including Jerusalem. America has been under God’s judgment since this event. Both of these hurricanes were cause by freakish weather patterns that came together to create.

Twenty-one years breaks down to 7 x 3, which is a significant number with God. Three is perfection as the Godhead is three in one while seven is perfection.

It appears that God gave America 21 years to repent of interfering with His prophetic plan for Israel; however, it has gotten worse under all the presidents and especially Obama. Obama is 100 percent behind the Muslim Brotherhood which has vowed to destroy Israel and take Jerusalem. Both candidates are pro-homosexual and are behind the homosexual agenda. America is under political judgment and the church does not know it!

No need for Republicans to exalt over this insanity though. Religious loons, while usually in favor of the extreme right, aren't happy about Willard Mitt Romney either. Mormon bishops aren't what far right religious nuts see as the solution.

I spoke out on the blog about Romney being a Mormon and pro-homosexual. Yes, he is a big time pro-homosexual supporter to the point he will keep open homosexuality in the military; he wants homosexuals in the Boy Scouts; and he wants more open homosexuals in the Republican Party. I have reported on this blog Romney’s pro-homosexual positions as he made them.

...He is a fully committed to the Mormon church. At one time he was a missionary and pastor. He gives large sums of money to this church. As a Mormon, he believes that the Lord Jesus Christ was brothers with satan. He also believes that Jesus Christ was born from physical relations between “elohim god” and Mary. He denies the blessed holy Trinity and has a pantheistic view of God in that there are multiple gods.

I warned and warned of the danger of this election, if the church did not repent before the Lord. America is under political judgment, and God’s people are looking for a political savior rather than crying out to God in repentance. Is a pro-homosexual Mormon going to save the nation?

I hold a Thursday night blog talk radio prayer show called Praying with One Accord in One Place. During this prayer, we have been crying out to the Lord to save us, and we repent of the sin of America and for the politicians running for president. How many are doing this across the nation? How many pastors are calling for prayer, fasting and mourning that God raised up Obama and Romney? I think not many.

The church has lost the fear of the Lord. The church wants an easy political solution and not prayer, fasting and crying out to the Lord for deliverance.

This monster storm aimed at America and ready to inflict severe damage during election week is not a coincidence. Hurricane Sandy may flood Washington, DC on election day! It is like the hurricane is a huge bucket of vomit in America’s face during the election. What a sign from the holy God of Israel that American politics is an abomination to Him. A pro-homosexual Mormon along with a pro-abortion/homosexual, Muslim Brotherhood promoter, Hard Left Fascist are running for president. And there is no cry of repentance from God’s people! I see this storm as a warning from the LORD to call His church to repentance, This might be the last call from the Holy God of Israel.

There's only so much man can do when it comes to Hurricane prevention but there is a lot man can do when it comes to dealing with the after-effects. Just last June every Republican but two voted against appropriations for flood relief. Shutting down FEMA, something Romney and the GOP have been agitating for, is not a good way to deal with the after-effects of a natural disaster. It would save greedy, selfish sociopathic billionaires money, but, in fact it would compound the effects of the disaster. As Think Progress reported yesterday "House Republicans have repeatedly attempted to slash funds for disaster preparedness and response in 2011."

According to the House Appropriation Committee’s summary of the bill, the [GOP's 2011 continuing resolution] funds Operations, Research and Facilities for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association with $454.3 million less than it got in FY2010; this represents a $450.3 million cut from what the president’s never-passed FY2011 budget was requesting. The National Weather Service, of course, is part of NOAA — its funding drops by $126 million. The CR also reduces funding for FEMA management by $24.3 million off of the FY2010 budget, and reduces that appropriation by $783.3 million for FEMA state and local programs.

"With each major natural disaster in 2011," the report concluded, "House Republicans dug in their heels over providing disaster relief. They repeatedly demanded the funds be offset by other spending cuts in the budget-- even as a deadly tornado tore through Missouri, an earthquake shook Virginia, and when Hurricane Irene struck the east coast last year.

"The politicization of disaster relief is likely to continue; the House Republican budget ignored a bipartisan agreement to make it easier to fund disaster relief, instead insisting again that spending cuts offset the emergency aid." And Paul Ryan's catastrophic budget-- the linchpin for the entire Republican vision going forward-- would cut out emergency disaster relief entirely. New Hampshire residents are likely to need that kind of relief but both Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta voted against it. So did Tom Reed in upstate New York, Eric Cantor in Virginia and Joe Pitts in southeast Pennsylvania. It's worth thinking about when you get into the voting booth a week from today.

The Worst Republicans In The House, None Of Whom Are Being Challenged By The DCCC

If Nick Cave's darling is right and there really is an interventionist God watching over mankind, DWT wouldn't have to make these political endorsements against the gravest evildoers hanging like Swords of Damocles over the very heart of our democracy. Yesterday Paul Krugman warned us to be a afraid, to be "very afraid." The Republicans, he points out, intend to bring as much pain and suffering to the country as they possibly can-- not just in gratitude to America's foreign competitors who have financed their election campaign but because they see it as the path to victory in 2012-- because the voters are rewarding their obstructionism. That said, with an acknowledgment that there remains not even one good Republican in Congress-- not in either house-- there are several who really stand out as existential threats to our nation and our families. Sure, you should urge everyone you know to vote against every one of them (including the Republicans who call themselves Blue Dog Democrats) but here's a list of Democrats running against the worst and most dangerous of the House incumbents.

Billy Kennedy is the most likely progressive to actually beat a hard core incumbent GOP hate merchant this year. He's running in northwest North Carolina and, although, the DCCC is studiously ignoring the race, he's been endorsed by the biggest newspaper in the district, he handily beat her in both debates, and his grassroots machine is working overtime to turn out Democrats, independents and non-hate obsessed Republicans. Billy has raised $290,380 to deploy against the $1,246,275 Foxx has on hand; she already spent $490,640.

Justin Coussoule is also running a serious grassroots campaign against John Boehner, the drunken golfer who China and Wall Street are working to install as Speaker. Justin has raised $216,457; Wall Street, China and other anti-American interests have given Boehner $8,194,339 this year.

Digby and I disagree over who the most dangerous Member of Congress is. She's sure it's Pence and then Ryan and I say it's Ryan, then Pence. Ladies first:

Barry Welsh is once again offering east-central Indiana voters an opportunity to ditch the ultra-reactionary Mike Pence. An apostle of class warfare and class hate, Pence was most recently in the news screaming about how if the GOP wins on Tuesday there will be no compromise, just hand-to-hand combat. Obviously the DCCC isn't opposing Pence and Barry is going up against Pence's $2,314,053 in corporate funding with... $115, all from individual contributions.

Paul Ryan, Obama's favorite Republican, is the man tasked by Wall Street to destroy Social Security. The DCCC worked very hard to sandbag and sabotage his opponent, Paulette Garin, driving her out of the race and replacing her with almost-Alvin-Greene. Ryan is in a Democratic district that Obama won-- but he's never had a serious challenge. I was told, by someone who knows, that David Obey was protecting him, although no one will tell me why. Wall Street has big plans for him; that we do know.

Tarryl Clark is making very serious headway against Minnesota monstrosity Michele Bachmann. That includes raising a startling $4,207,917-- although, keep in mind that the self-declared Queen of Teabaggery sucked up $11,130,358, and very little of it from PACs, mostly from angry white males high on hate.

Russ Warner is taking on crackpot closet queen David Dreier again, at a time when the already ultra-conservative Dreier has moved as far right as the worst of any Republicans. He's the single most out-of-step incumbent with his own district. In a moderate suburban district Obama won Dreier racked up a disgraceful 0.82 ProgressivePunch score, more extremist and intractable than anyone on this list other than Pence, Calvert and Foxx. He raised $1,008,978 this year, to Warner's $292,330. No one in the district knows how radical he is, since he owns the only newspapers in the district and they always paint him as a "moderate."

Russell Edwards is taking on Georgia sociopath and John Bircher Paul Broun. Russell has raised $193,339 to Broun's $1,829,701, although because of Broun's profligate spending, both have around the same cash on hand right now! The DCCC, once again, is ignoring this one. You know what, they're ignoring all these races, other than a little superficial support for Tarryl, so I'll just stop mentioning them at this point. They're not helping any Democrats running against any of the worst Republican incumbents.

Bill Hedrick is actually the Democratic challenger most likely to win on Tuesday, a combination of being such an awesome candidate himself-- who nearly won in 2010-- and because he's running against a corrupt corporate shill Fox named one of the most disgraceful Members of Congress and who even the Heritage Foundation is calling on the GOP to sideline, Ken Calvert, whose entire political career has been consumed with using his office for personal gain-- when not preying on drugged up young women. Bill has raised $492,888 against Calvert's massive $1,597,265 warchest full of bribes.

Matt Campbell is taking on narrow-minded right-wing extremist and hypocrite Steve King in western Iowa. The Des Moines Register has urged its readers to dump King as an embarrassment to the state and replace him with Matt. Matt has raised $225,350 to King's $893,263.

Tod Theise is the progressive ex-Republican running against the single most right-wing congressman in the Northeast, Wall Street shill Scott Garrett. Tod raised $20,679 to go up against Wall Street's massive $1,593,392 investment in Garrett. (It didn't all come from Wall Street; the anti-Choice absolutists have donated heavily to Garrett too, as have loads of anti-environmental fanatics.)

Rick Waugh is taking on the GOP's #2, Eric Cantor, who has been having Waugh supporters roughed up by security guards, like Joe Miller does. Cantor, who practically defines congressional corruption, has scooped up $5,552,954 in bribes this year. Waugh has raised $108,104.

Howard Katz is the man who is taking on career criminal Darrell Issa, who started out as a car jacker and is now the wealthiest Member of Congress-- and the nastiest and most vindictive as well. Should Boehner and his cronies win on Tuesday, Issa will be charged with grinding the government to a halt by investigating everything that moves, a job he relishes and is well-suited for. Katz has raised $14,112 against Issa's $1,322,194.

And Georgia's nastiest and most dangerous bigot, Tom Price, doesn't even have a token opponent. That hasn't stopped him from sucking up to every corrupt lobbyist on K Street and hauling in $1,959,189. If he isn't part of the next Congress it will only be through God's direct intervention.

Three honorable mentions for three exceptionally hideous GOP challengers: crackpot religious fanatic Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster, who is challenging Alan Grayson; serial sex predator and multimillionaire Boehner crony Tom Ganley (who's in the news again this week for molesting yet another woman); and, last and probably least-- keep in mind I'm leaving out outrageous scum like Nazi Rich Iott and Dan Quayle's slow son Ben, the pornographer-- Tim Griffin. Since he knows him so well, let's allow former U.S. Attorney, and Republican, David Iglesias tell us about Griffin in the video below: