2020 US Election - Page 170

On November 06 2020 06:26 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Looks like Biden is about to move ahead in PA.

It’s not uncommon for Cabinet secretaries to prepare undated letters of resignation during a presidential transition, giving the commander in chief the chance to replace them for a second term. The president decides whether to accept the resignation letters, and the process usually occurs after the election results are clear.
But defense officials say Esper prepared his letter because he is one of the Cabinet officials long expected to be pushed out after the election. As his tenure may be coming to an end, Esper is helping members of Congress draft legislation that will strip names of Confederate leaders from military bases in a move that could put him further at odds with President Donald Trump

On November 06 2020 06:29 ChristianS wrote:
IIRC Republicans currently have like a ~+8 advantage in the Senate relative to the popular vote (that is, if they lost every election by 8 points in the popular vote, they’d keep 50 senators on average). Adding PR and DC would bring that to ~+4. “That would give Dems too much advantage” is a pretty weak argument against, and basically every argument against using the popular vote (e.g. ensuring less populous groups’ interests are still represented) would cut in favor of representing the people of DC and PR, too. Of course, the reason it doesn’t happen is because Republicans have a lot of power, and appear not to have a single principle they prioritize more highly than obtaining more power.

Designing the whole system around incentivizing politicians to do whatever it takes to win elections has really negative consequences in situations where those same politicians get to make decisions about the electoral machinery. It’s not obvious how to solve that problem democratically, but gerrymandering, voter suppression, and Electoral College stuff are all victims of that problem (and all seem to be getting worse as time goes on). A few years ago people were optimistic about a judicial branch solution to the gerrymandering issue, but I assume everyone’s given up on that.

On November 06 2020 06:28 Wegandi wrote:


New era? You cant extrapolate mid term elections that much. Would you have done the same when the GOP pounced Obama in 2010?

On November 06 2020 06:20 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:
Weird timing for Esper. Wonder if Trump asked him to do something wild.

On November 06 2020 06:32 Broetchenholer wrote:
The reasoning against a representation of million of Americans is from the completely wrong point of view. It's not the voting populace that needs to adopt to the political parties, it's the parties needing to adopt to to the voting populace. It's exactly the same mindset that ends with voter disenfranchisement because politiciansthink it's their right to only represent the people they care about. If the only way the GOP can cling to power is to hold onto the abitrary ruling that 52 GOP senators represent only 153 million americans and no more can ever be included, why did the US ever create more states, clearly, at some point before, new states would have meant a shift in political power somewhere else.
Also, what declaration of political bankruptcy is it to say, the GOP would never win DC or PR?

On November 06 2020 06:35 Wegandi wrote:


You realize we had a civil war in large part to the Missouri Compromise which ya know...was about adding new states. Foreigners ignorant of US history shouldnt be so boisterous on this topic.

On November 06 2020 06:33 Wegandi wrote:


The political unit and polity of this country is not based on individual persons. Its based off the 50 states. It has been since our inception (which preceded both parties). Using the popular vote is meaningless when talking about the power dynamics of our institutions (do you care about those now or do you want to alter and abolish still?).

On November 06 2020 06:35 Zambrah wrote:
America was founded with 50 states?! Man, I knew American education was bad but I didnt think my history education was that shitty.

On November 06 2020 06:40 Diavlo wrote:
So AP and Fox won't call Nevada because they don't want to admit they were wrong to call Arizona that soon?

On November 06 2020 06:42 FlaShFTW wrote:

Pretty much. I expect the other stations that have not called Arizona to call Nevada right away tomorrow morning when Nevada finally releases the last bit of Clark county. They really want to say "apparent winner" instead of "projected winner" I guess.