The vote in Crimea to join Russia was lop-sided. Perhaps that was partly a result of Russian troops and the way the question was worded, but it is clear that a majority of the Crimean population thought it would not get a good deal from the new government in Kiev and really wanted to be part of Russia.
It is time we worried less about the election in Crimea and more about the elections in the United States. I live in Pennsylvania, where a clear majority of voters in the 2012 election supported Democratic candidates for the U.S. Congress but only elected 5 of the 18 seats because of a Republican gerrymander.
I live in Pennsylvania where Jerry Knowles, running for the state House of Representatives, and Charlie Dent, running for the U.S. Congress, have no opposition in the primary or the general election. I live in a country where the Republicans in Ohio just made it more difficult to vote, an action which will have the effect of suppressing the Democratic vote. I live in a country in which corporations are people, and the Koch Brothers are allowed to spend millions to sway elections.
The vote in Crimea, compared to our elections, seems to have been reasonably fair.
If corporations are people, why is it that none ever go to jail? All they ever get is a slap on the wrist. It's high time that CEO's spend some time in jail, not just a small fine!
ReplyDeleteNew science points to gerrymandering as not being the cause of the Republican congressional majorities. The math shows that liberals are heavily concentrated in cities. Outside of urban areas the population breaks down a little more evenly but with a distinct advantage to conservatives.
ReplyDeleteUnder Supreme Court decisions, districts must be equal in population. Within that parameter, legislators can draw all kinds of districts, packing Democrats into a few districts, or dividing them among many. If you look at a map of Pennsylvania, you can see the creativity of boundary drawing. The result was in the 2012 Congressional elections. I could have drawn a completely different set of boundaries that would have reversed the Republican-Democratic spread, and still had equal population boundaries.
ReplyDelete