Beware

Not too many months ago the prevailing wisdom had it that we are a right of center nation. If this is still the case the point spread has narrowed. Obama’s reelection is more a symptom, the cause being Romney’s now famous forty seven percent, the proverbial picture worth a thousand words, Gun control is not as clear cut an issue. But to the extent that it is I feel a strong breeze from left field. All in all I feel better being a Democrat today than a year ago. Faint praise is better than none.

There are the usual dark clouds on the horizon, one of them particularly ominous. That is talk of a plan by Republican legislatures and governors in major swing states to give their electoral votes to presidential candidates according to the number of Congressional districts won by a candidate.* All that can be said in favor of this system is that it is legal and currently in place in two smaller states, Maine and Nebraska. The argument against it is that if it had been effect in the last election Mitt Romney would be president and the five million more voters, roughly four percent of the electorate, who saw Obama as the better candidate, would have counted for nothing. With public opinion nearly unanimous in favor of popular vote over electoral votes in deciding presidential elections, Republicans are now pushing to eliminate the popular vote in deciding how the states’ electoral votes will be cast. It doesn’t require a road map or GPS to see where this is headed and why.

The Tea Party onslaught of 2010 brought us Republican governors and state legislators who have gerrymandered Congressional districts until the 2020 census, to the point where even though Democratic Congressional candidates drew a million more votes nationally last November, Republicans still enjoy a substantial majority in the House. What this new plan would do in effect is gerrymander presidential elections.

Neither side should be trusted with this much power, but particularly these people. We’ve heard this “they’re all bums” business for quite a few years. I don’t know who the right wing considers our biggest bums. But I suspect Bernie Sanders, technically an independent, and Barney Frank rank high on the list. Are they as far removed from reality as the other guys’ top bums? You can start with their experts on rape and work from there. It’s no contest.

Most dangerous is the portion of voters they court and to whom they cater who claim the need for more weaponry to match that of the government. To me these people are a permanent part of the Republican constituency until I’ve heard otherwise and I haven’t heard a thing yet. Any political party that demands its presidential hopefuls deny evolution has enough wrong with it to be unfit for the privilege of governing the United States. To allow it to govern to its heart’s content is unthinkable.


*This was written several days ago when I was sans computer. Since that time four governors of the states in question have said that they don’t intend to follow this course. Both they and the legislators are up for reelection next year. Don’t breathe easy yet. They’ll still have two more years to do their dirty work.

Addendum: Some people have responded to my last letter by saying that Obama was born in Hawaii, not Kenya. This is all left wing media fiction. Just ask Donald Trump.