By Bill Maher
In the last election, Democrats got a million more votes for their House candidates than Republicans did. In a fair world, Nancy Pelosi would be Speaker again, but Republicans still have a 33-seat majority because of gerrymandering.
Let's call gerrymandering what it really is: segregation. It carves up district lines so "urban" voters -- aka African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics -- are bunched up in Democratic districts, while suburban and rural districts are carefully kept just white enough to go Republican.
Short-term, gerrymandering is the only thing that keeps the GOP in power. Long-term, it just might kill them. They can't compete for Hispanic votes because they don't have to. Using redistricting as a crutch only allows them to stay in denial about demographic reality, which is that the fastest growing groups in the country are racing to the polls to vote for Democrats while the Republican base is racing to the morgue. Moreover, it only encourages them to continue insulting voters they need to take back the White House, or even hold onto Congress over the next few cycles.
You know who I think would back me up on this? George W. Bush. Remember, he was for immigration reform, but his own party killed him over it. If you're a Republican, isn't it a serious problem when George W. Bush is a couple steps ahead of the rest of your party? And even though the tide seems to have turned on immigration reform, most Republicans are still from districts whose voters are very uncomfortable doing the salsa.
Most Republican politicians are smart enough to know they've got an existential problem here, but their voters aren't. They see a pathway to citizenship as "amnesty," and won't soon forgive their congressman if he votes for it. So if you're a Republican House member, what the hell do you do?
In the last election, Democrats got a million more votes for their House candidates than Republicans did. In a fair world, Nancy Pelosi would be Speaker again, but Republicans still have a 33-seat majority because of gerrymandering.
Let's call gerrymandering what it really is: segregation. It carves up district lines so "urban" voters -- aka African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics -- are bunched up in Democratic districts, while suburban and rural districts are carefully kept just white enough to go Republican.
Short-term, gerrymandering is the only thing that keeps the GOP in power. Long-term, it just might kill them. They can't compete for Hispanic votes because they don't have to. Using redistricting as a crutch only allows them to stay in denial about demographic reality, which is that the fastest growing groups in the country are racing to the polls to vote for Democrats while the Republican base is racing to the morgue. Moreover, it only encourages them to continue insulting voters they need to take back the White House, or even hold onto Congress over the next few cycles.
You know who I think would back me up on this? George W. Bush. Remember, he was for immigration reform, but his own party killed him over it. If you're a Republican, isn't it a serious problem when George W. Bush is a couple steps ahead of the rest of your party? And even though the tide seems to have turned on immigration reform, most Republicans are still from districts whose voters are very uncomfortable doing the salsa.
Most Republican politicians are smart enough to know they've got an existential problem here, but their voters aren't. They see a pathway to citizenship as "amnesty," and won't soon forgive their congressman if he votes for it. So if you're a Republican House member, what the hell do you do?
17 comments:
It has finally come to a point where we as a country need to help our President help rebuild our nation and fix this economy once and for all.
In one of my earlier blogs........... Eulogy for America , I wrote that Abraham Lincoln stated that a house divided could not stand by itself. One Hundred and Fifty Four Years Later this truth is self evident!
We as a nation have proudly boasted of our nation being one of free elections, freedom of speech and living in a republic with freely elected representation of the people, by the people and for the people.
How terrible it seems that the truth is that while we try and convince the world that our society is the best we as a nation are destroying ourselves because of BIPARTISANSHIP.
Yes I am going to lecture again on the evils of Bipartisanship again because it is has been taken to an all time extreme of system failure.
Gone are the days where Ronald Reagan a Republican could sit side by side with Tip O'Neil the great liberal Bostonian and work not as adversaries but as Americans to rebuild our nation! How was it that one of the greatest of Republican Presidents could succeed with a House and Senate both controlled by Democrats.... Because Reagan and O'Neil instilled in our elected officials THAT they all were Americans first elected of the people, by the people and working for the people...Wow a concept now almost gone forever it seems!!!!
Gone are the free thinking individuals we elected to represent us not as Democrats or Republicans but as elected Americans representing the foundations of government of the people, by the people and for the people.
I for one am tired of being asked what party I belong to because the truth is I am ashamed of both parties and how they have failed to do anything but turn our nation upside down and have failed to realize our need for decisive leadership and a course of action agreed upon by the many!
When I am asked I reply, I am a lost breed... I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican... I am an American....! Are there any others out there?
Until we all demand that our elected officials come together as a Nation of Americans we will never fix our nation's problems and the concept of government of the people, by the people and for the people will be viewed by the world as a social experiment that failed replaced by Two Parties creating A House Divided!
I AM AN AMERICAN .........WHAT ARE YOU?...... ARE THERE ANY OTHERS OUT THERE OR AM I ALONE?
HTTP://MARCSVIEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM
Democracy sure isn't perfect; in Egypt they are already rioting trying to kick out democratically elected Mursi (be careful what you wish for you might get it; eg Hamas). The Achilles Heel of Democracy is massive government deficits; check out that bastion of Democracy, Greece.
-If the Republicans can lose the racist/bigot/rich guy image and restore the fiscal balance sheet without screwing the little guy completely, only then can they have a hope.
Stephen Colbert has it figured out...instead of voters choosing thier leaders,the leaders can now choose thier voters.
(Which is what you have to do to win elections when your party's social and economic philosophy alienates 90% of the electorate.)
popular vote is all that shoudl matter...one person , one vote
You do it anyway, and if you lose your next election, you lose. At least you will have contributed something good into the brickwork of your state.
Sarah
Bristol
UK
@Marc Swartz, I couldn't give a flying fuck either about what party someone's in you have to work for the good of your country. Although I am a Democrat. It's never about what colour you are it's about how do we fix the problem ahead of us, what's the best move.
Are you too disilluisioned? What about Obama?
Sas
Sarah
Bristol
UK
@Marc Swartz, I couldn't give a flying fuck either about what party someone's in you have to work for the good of your country. Although I am a Democrat. It's never about what colour you are it's about how do we fix the problem ahead of us, what's the best move.
Are you too disilluisioned? What about Obama?
Sas
Sarah
Bristol
UK
Lofty goals, be they landing a man on the moon or mars, building palaces, bridges, new refineries and supporting the arts, are not the same as the goals of those who are happy in front of the boob tube with a beer in one hand and the other down the pants. Sometimes we push the foundations to support the lofty things. That pushes some into the cracks and to the edge. Then we have to spend some effort to firm up the foundation, the infrastructure. No one gets what he wants or needs all the time. The purpose of the electoral college is so the needs and wants of high population centers don't supersede those of low population areas. That doesn't work.
@Marc Swartz
I can agree with you in principle. In action though, we (you and me and others like us) dont get to define what the "problems america faces" actually are. The overclass gets to decide that and then its broadcast out over a completely captive media 24/7..Apparently, for instance, one of the biggest "problems we face" is the billionaires pay a "cripling" burden in taxes. Another "problem we face" is that working people are just getting fat and lazy off government "entitlements" - now people who actually have the numbers right in ffront of them (and who are capable of adding substrcting, multiplying and dividing) can PROVE THE EXACT OPPOSITE IS TRUE IN BOTH CASES...see what i mean?
@ sarah
WTF!?? i meant that litterally...
trouble with compound ideas?
whats wrong with learning to write?
The Justice Department requires this kind of apportionment so that majority/minority districts will ensure that minorities are elected to Congress. In the south, states have to get pre-approval from Justice. So, it is not exactly the Republicans' fault.
Bill - pls take a look at what happened to North Carolina re gerrymandering – AND ALSO see AP story by Gary Robertson RE Chase Burns racketeering in Fla & pumping $230,000 to NC Republicans, INCLUDING our new Gov (then candidate) Pat McCrory... McCrory + all Republican NC House & Senate = very scary times for NC. We expect coastline to be drilled into brown sludge like Texas, fracking gone wild moving forward w no contest, etc... Dark times for clean air/water here in NC. Please look into and maybe call out these guys on Real Time.
I am not a fan of another rotten-mouthed Jew (aka Howard Stern).
Seems that Maher would be more comfortable sitting nest to the little troll running N. Korea. There ha not been one time when I accidentally tuned in to Maher's propaganda mill that he is not trashing the GOP. Maybe he should shack-up with Huntington herself and create a litter of little bastard liberals.
C'mon folks. Of all the political tricks out there, if there's one that we can lay equally at both party's doors, it's gerrymandering. It's just unfortunate that the other guy got to do it more effectively this time.
You do it anyway, and if you lose your next election, you lose.
There's too many career politicians.
As Neil DeGrasse Tyson said on Jon Stewart's Daily Show said the other week: "In Congress we have lawyer, lawyer, lawyer, lawyer, business man, lawyer, lawyer... Where are the scientists? where is the rest of society?"
Being a Congressman or Senator should not be something you do as a full career, just like the population doesn't consider being a voter a full career.
Being "politically minded" should qualify you as a politician (without the negative connotations). By "politically minded" I mean:
1. representing the thoughts, opinions and feelings of those you represent, communicating those to neighboring groups of people and their representatives, finding and establishing levels of understanding and friendship.
2. establishing ground rules of conduct and moral behavior that allow a society to function properly and to flourish.
That shouldn't require a law or business degree.
In fact, law and business education are specifically about the distortion of truth in order to either convince or sell, respectively.
Scientific training and professions encompass a massive number of fields and disciplines, but are all based on one thing: the scientific method.
Hypothesize, Test, Evaluate, and then:
As the Conclusion: Applying the simple logical notion that: if Evaluation is not equal to Hypothesis, then Hypothesis is false. AND ONLY THAT ONE.
This is also known as commitment to truth.
Truth is rarely known, even in this, the beginning of our digital age, because elements of truth can segmented, reorganized and edited into whatever form some people wish them.
I'm sure that given enough time, I could rearrange all of George W Bush speeches into a recitation, per verbatim, of the Koran, in Arabic.
But it wouldn't be believable, would it?
The technology to create a CCTV film of nearly any event is today within the hands of anyone who owns a PC. The software is available online, for free: Blender (blender.org).
That should scare you, especially if our government can't tell truth from a bargaining line to get more funding.
Bill, you've long talked about religion, and race. The future is is about consumer behavior. With cellphones, mega corps can now track where people go, what ppl do, at all times of the day, and most importantly, as a trend over the years.
You know how much of government is truly owned by corporations.
This is their next step, and we don't have time to wait for the next generation of scientists to become politicians.
We must react now.
We the people with the most money
Seqester.....rise in unemployment......I will not touch medicare....2percent less pay out...who needs an oncologist......less public housing in NY....more luxury housing for the new Rome....The majority voted for a moderate and were it not for redistricting a democratic congress...we got.......We the people with the most money rule........We have and continue to be dupped with lies!
"Hey Bill is this true"
MARLIN FIREARMS CLOSING ITS DOORS
Even if you do not own a gun you need to know this. I checked this out on "Truth or Fiction" who verified it. I trust them more than Snopes.
Marlin Firearms is already closing its doors! They are doing it to us, America! This needs to be spread to all gun owners and sportsmen/women. We cannot rely on the media to inform us of these types of matters.
Something you may not know that Is happening ... Who is buying the companies manufacturing guns??? For the last several years a company called The Freedom Group has been buying up gun and ammunition manufacturers. Some of the companies are Bushmaster, Marlin, Remington, DPMS, Dakota Arms and H&R. Some people worry that this Freedom Group is going to control most of the firearms companies in the United States. If you control the manufacturers you can decide to stop selling to civilians.
What a perfect way to control guns. Now if you do some digging you will see that The Freedom Group is owned by a company called Cerberus Capital Management. Guess who controls Cerberus??? GEORGE SOROS, Obama's chief financier!! He wants to restrict or ban all civilian guns. Please pass this on to all your freedom loving friends. This needs to come out. Why have we not heard about this in the "mainstream" media? I would think this would be BIG news. (Soros also owns Progressive Insurance). If you don't know who George Soros is, you need to do some research. This One-World Government atheist backed Obama with millions of dollars and Obama is a puppet on a string controlled by Soros.
Send this to every gun owner you know!
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