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Hillary won the popular vote by 1.1% and currently the Republicans hold a razor thin Senate majority and have been substantially outpaced by Democrats in the Ho

Hillary won the popular vote by 1.1% and currently the Republicans hold a razor thin Senate majority and have been substantially outpaced by Democrats in the House, so I'm not really sure where you get the idea that there's a "far disproportionate share of power/representation". It seems pretty proportionate to me.

basementcat 6y ago
65,853,514 to 62,984,828, about 2.1% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidentia...
zanny 6y ago
Proportionality isn't one to one because half of Americans aren't republican and half aren't democrat. The problem is that polling data is absolutely awful at showing absolute support for the individual parties platforms and membership numbers are largely biased compared to what the electorate actually wants, but there are plenty of articles about GOP tactics to hold power from a minority bloc position.[1] I wish I bookmarked the statistics on this because they were eye opening to me, but 2016 polls were showing about 40% democrat to 35% republican leaning in the country. So if the public at large is 5% more blue than red, but Republicans hold near-even seats in government, thats a bias in their favor. And as this and many other articles show this isn't the product of random swings of popular support but structurally orchestrated power grabs meant to keep a minority party in power. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/gop-maneuvers-rule-minority-party/577948/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/gop-man... Edit: And to be fair the Senate isn't a democratic institution whatsoever to begin with. Its going to naturally lean red because there are many states with low urbanization and population that produce permanent seat Republican senators. Because the distribution of states has nothing to do with the distribution of people that lends the senate to be hugely incongruent with the actual ideological makeup of the populace at large.
tyre 6y ago
You look at the core beliefs of the Republican Party: Anti-Abortion: about or above sixty percent of Americans support legal abortions Climate change: two thirds of Americans view it as a top priority and that the benefits of action outweigh the costs Guns: sixty percent to two-thirds of Americans support stricter gun control. 90–92% support mandatory background checks Taxing Wealthy: again, sixty percent to two thirds support higher taxes on the wealthy. Those are the pillars. Those are the core propositions. Americans do not support them or not by a margin of 1.1%
- edbob 6y ago
  Polls are notoriously unreliable and easy to manipulate. "Lies, damned lies, and statistics". I'm not even saying that you're wrong -- I'm saying that we have no way to know whether you're correct or not based on the numbers you threw out. We would need some good sources to even begin to evaluate the truth of these assertions. The assertions themselves are so unbelievably vague that they could easily go either way with cherry-picked polling. Most people support abortion in cases of rape, so if you do a poll asking if people think some abortion should be legal, you will easily get a majority. If you ask about easy access to abortion in the 9th month, you get far lower levels of support. Saying "most support legal abortions" is practically meaningless without specifying what type of abortion they support.
- taurath 6y ago
  If people voted for any of those things, there would be quite a different margin. So then, what DO people vote for?
  - pm90 6y ago
    People do vote for these things, but if you split voters is a particular way you can ensure that the minority hold on to power (Gerrymandering and the Electoral College).
    - taurath 6y ago
      If you're looking at a 60/40 split though, even the extreme levels of gerrymandering can't override it. So what are the other things that people vote for - they must have a large rightward split if people keep voting right wing, in the face of all those left-leaning polls on policies.

basementcat 6y ago

65,853,514 to 62,984,828, about 2.1% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidentia...

zanny 6y ago

Proportionality isn't one to one because half of Americans aren't republican and half aren't democrat. The problem is that polling data is absolutely awful at showing absolute support for the individual parties platforms and membership numbers are largely biased compared to what the electorate actually wants, but there are plenty of articles about GOP tactics to hold power from a minority bloc position.[1] I wish I bookmarked the statistics on this because they were eye opening to me, but 2016 polls were showing about 40% democrat to 35% republican leaning in the country. So if the public at large is 5% more blue than red, but Republicans hold near-even seats in government, thats a bias in their favor. And as this and many other articles show this isn't the product of random swings of popular support but structurally orchestrated power grabs meant to keep a minority party in power. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/gop-maneuvers-rule-minority-party/577948/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/gop-man... Edit: And to be fair the Senate isn't a democratic institution whatsoever to begin with. Its going to naturally lean red because there are many states with low urbanization and population that produce permanent seat Republican senators. Because the distribution of states has nothing to do with the distribution of people that lends the senate to be hugely incongruent with the actual ideological makeup of the populace at large.

tyre 6y ago

You look at the core beliefs of the Republican Party: Anti-Abortion: about or above sixty percent of Americans support legal abortions Climate change: two thirds of Americans view it as a top priority and that the benefits of action outweigh the costs Guns: sixty percent to two-thirds of Americans support stricter gun control. 90–92% support mandatory background checks Taxing Wealthy: again, sixty percent to two thirds support higher taxes on the wealthy. Those are the pillars. Those are the core propositions. Americans do not support them or not by a margin of 1.1%

edbob 6y ago
Polls are notoriously unreliable and easy to manipulate. "Lies, damned lies, and statistics". I'm not even saying that you're wrong -- I'm saying that we have no way to know whether you're correct or not based on the numbers you threw out. We would need some good sources to even begin to evaluate the truth of these assertions. The assertions themselves are so unbelievably vague that they could easily go either way with cherry-picked polling. Most people support abortion in cases of rape, so if you do a poll asking if people think some abortion should be legal, you will easily get a majority. If you ask about easy access to abortion in the 9th month, you get far lower levels of support. Saying "most support legal abortions" is practically meaningless without specifying what type of abortion they support.
taurath 6y ago
If people voted for any of those things, there would be quite a different margin. So then, what DO people vote for?
- pm90 6y ago
  People do vote for these things, but if you split voters is a particular way you can ensure that the minority hold on to power (Gerrymandering and the Electoral College).
  - taurath 6y ago
    If you're looking at a 60/40 split though, even the extreme levels of gerrymandering can't override it. So what are the other things that people vote for - they must have a large rightward split if people keep voting right wing, in the face of all those left-leaning polls on policies.