2018 U.S election

[Bootstoots]

Can we at least consolidate the Dakotas?

It would be easier to admit Puerto Rico, DC*, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Marianas, and American Samoa all as separate states, and have them elect their own 12 senators among them. It's not just the Supreme Court we could enlarge!

*We'll leave a tiny rump DC behind consisting of only the important federal buildings and about 1000 Democrats in the general vicinity. It will get DC's electoral votes.

 

[JollyRoger]

Given that the possibel 51st, if ever, is Puerto Rico, the states that are the biggest problems are the beheamoths. More feasible to even it out(some) by splitting CA, NY, or TX probably, than try and nuke a Dakota.

I think we have enough problems with the directional states to be tempted to create more.

 

[Farm Boy]

I am unable to follow the entire subthought for...technical reasons. I'm sure you'll understand if I don't elaborate.

That said, yes, that particular complaint about number of votes cast for Senate candidates this cycle is off base for basically those reasons. (I agree with what @hobbsyoyo pointed out as well.) The Democratic voters who are making the complaint are conflating it with the much more valid complaint about the Electoral College and popular vote in 2016. Unfortunately, the most common response by Republicans thus far on most social media is vague whining about the Left Coast, rather than coherent thoughts as seen above.

We'll let our technical reasons play ball together out in the back 40 then, eh?

The EC works sorta hybridized between the Senate the House. I'm actually amazed that its margin of power has come into play twice in 20. It's where a lot of the bile in conversations like the one I had with Tim come from. If it makes you feel any better, I am constantly irritated talking to my irl conservative peers that read the news and watch too much Youtube(particularly). That is a full 50% of my rude swipes and now I'm worried Boots thinks I was aiming at him. Remember meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I just get the feeling that people who should be better with numbers frequently choose not to be.

Called on it and double down.

A bold strategy.

---

Katie Porter has not conceded in CA-45. I read an article (NY Times?) that typically in the LA area late ballot counts and recounts tend to favor Democrats by a wide margin. All of the districts around me that the media called for Republican are in fact still open with margins closing. In the past this has meant surprise Democratic pick ups and I'm hoping this holds true again this year. Clinton carried my district I believe by 5% and Porter was up around that much on election day.

Yet by the end of the night it appeared she had lost by that much. Here's hoping the final late tallies pull in her favor.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I am unable to follow the entire subthought for...technical reasons. I'm sure you'll understand if I don't elaborate.

That said, yes, that particular complaint about number of votes cast for Senate candidates this cycle is off base for basically those reasons. (I agree with what @hobbsyoyo pointed out as well.) The Democratic voters who are making the complaint are conflating it with the much more valid complaint about the Electoral College and popular vote in 2016. Unfortunately, the most common response by Republicans thus far on most social media is vague whining about the Left Coast, rather than coherent thoughts as seen above.

And at the end of they day, even with California accounted for, Democrats still failed to take control of the Senate. It's great they took the House but this is a persistent structural problem with our system.

Sure, this is a Federal system, states get an outsized apportionment because reasons - but this senate result didn't happen in a vacuum. It happened in the context of 2 recent EC losses, a gerrymandered to hell House and the other side going balls to the wall to suppress the vote. Add in a stolen SCOTUS appointment or two and yeah we're flipping pissed.

Did I mention our government agencies are being handed over to industry by the day?

 

[onejayhawk]

Can we at least consolidate the Dakotas?

And New England.

Given that the possibel 51st, if ever, is Puerto Rico, the states that are the biggest problems are the beheamoths. More feasible to even it out(some) by splitting CA, NY, or TX probably, than try and nuke a Dakota.

Cuba, not PR. Realistically PR is too small. You could do the whole archipelago--PR and the Lesser Antilles--but much of that is not US territory which complicates things. Cuba is transitioning from the Castro era. The radical change from State to state might be doable.

J

 

[metalhead]

We should let Congress gerrymander the state lines every 10 years after the census. Spice things up!

 

[hobbsyoyo]

We should let Congress gerrymander the state lines every 10 years after the census. Spice things up!

Too late, the Republicans are trying to skew that too.

It just doesn't end.

 

[Farm Boy]

My word, we could give Chicago to D.C.!1!!1 Hehehehe. Second City no longer...

Cuba, not PR. Realistically PR is too small. You could do the whole archipelago--PR and the Lesser Antilles--but much of that is not US territory which complicates things. Cuba is transitioning from the Castro era. The radical change from State to state might be doable.

I dunno man. I think PR would work. Go all Alaska and see what else could be bought for coolbux(if anything, gonna be way too lazy to look anything about that up). Cuba doesn't look like it's in the cards. We aren't even particularly friendly.

 

[JollyRoger]

Realistically PR is too small.

J

It has a higher population than 21 states, including the first two on the Presidential primary trail.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Cuba, not PR. Realistically PR is too small. You could do the whole archipelago--PR and the Lesser Antilles--but much of that is not US territory which complicates things. Cuba is transitioning from the Castro era. The radical change from State to state might be doable.

J

As much as I despise your posts generally, I can't skip them because of repetitive gems of hilarity like this one. First off, the "Puerto Rico would only enter as the 30th most populated state, immediately qualifying it for five seats in the House of Representatives, but it's too small because J says so" line is just hysterical on its face. Then the follow up of how adding territory to Puerto Rico that isn't even US territory would be hard (good thing it would be totally unnecessary then, eh?), so making a state out of Cuba is the answer is like the double tap punch line. How many times are you going to post this particular bit of comically stupid nonsense?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I don't think it would be the smallest by land area either.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I don't think it would be the smallest by land area either.

Land area is totally irrelevant, but you are correct anyway.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Land area is totally irrelevant, but you are correct anyway.

I tend to agree. Others think it gets a vote. Maybe when @Farm Boy is done insulting me he'll give us that side of the argument.

Either way, Cuba as a state

 

[JollyRoger]

the Virgin Islands

I didn't realize the MRAs had their own islands.

 

[Lexicus]

Unfortunately, the most common response by Republicans thus far on most social media is vague whining about the Left Coast, rather than coherent thoughts as seen above.

Defenses of the Senate that aren't incoherent are just abhorrent. Minority rule is wrong, and the Senate is a tool expressly designed for minority rule (and it will only become more so as the proportion of the population voting for Republicans continues to shrink).

I will admit that the mental and verbal gymnastics Farm Boy performs to make minority rule seem legit are somewhat impressive.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I think we have enough problems with the directional states to be tempted to create more.

Like why are there two Dakotas and two Carolina ?
So dumb honestly

 

[Broken_Erika]

Cuba CAN be the 51st state. And Mongolia can be the 52nd!

 

[FriendlyFire]

Cuba CAN be the 51st state. And Mongolia Canada can be the 52nd!

Fixed

 

[Zkribbler]

Dem ideas win while Dems lose.

Perhaps the most promising development for progressive Democrats in Tuesday’s elections came from ballot initiatives in conservative territory. Over the course of the evening, progressives notched policy victory after policy victory in red state after red state.

Voters raised the minimum wage in Arkansas and Missouri. They expanded Medicaid coverage to more than 300,000 people in Utah, Nebraska and Idaho. In Florida, they restored voting rights to over 1.2 million convicted felons ― a civil rights victory that will transform the state’s electorate of 16 million. Utah ― Utah! ― legalized medical marijuana.

Most of these initiatives weren’t close. The Arkansas minimum wage hike cleared by a margin of more than 2-to-1. The similar Missouri measure passed by nearly 30 percentage points, about even with the vote on an August primary measure to help unions in the state. Florida’s voting rights amendment passed 64 percent to 36 percent.

And yet even as they endorsed Democratic Party policy ideas, voters in these same states rejected actual Democratic candidates for statewide office.

Here's the entire story: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...ratic-party-ideas_us_5be35c68e4b0dbe871a66ca5