No Red Wave

Gerrymandering didn’t play much of a factor in Florida.

In a race where one party wins by 20% points, it doesn’t make much difference how you draw the lines. To be clear, Democrats won majorities in the gubernatorial and cabinet races in only five counties: Alachua, Broward, Gadsden, Leon, and Orange. Demings may have squeaked out a fraction of a point over Rubio in Palm Beach, but the rest of the statewide Democrats even managed to lose that one.

Ultimately there’s a pretty limited pool of seats that you can scratch out, no matter how the lines are drawn, when you manage to lose essentially everywhere in the state.

 

Of course, gerrymandering also has impacts on turnout and enthusiasm. I am a pretty hardcore political junky and I barely felt the need to vote yesterday, as I had exactly zero competitive races between the parties to vote about yesterday (Louisiana does have jungle primaries- so I had a couple of what were essentially competitive Democratic Primaries). There is not a single competitive district in the entire state.

Would it have mattered yesterday? Tough to tell, although it isn't highly likely. But decades of gerrymandering continuing on is designed to essentially depress turnout of the minority party.

 

Your both parties take ignores reality. Only one party (Pubs) elected nut jobs like MJT and Bobert, rejected legitimate election results and condoned violent insurrection against Congress in session. Only one party (Dems) passed bipartisan bills to address infrastructure and gun violence.

 

Yeah -- all the the districts broke exactly as they're designed to. Even a blue wave, which wasn't really on the table, wouldn't have overcome the gerrymandering, and all the polls showed the statewide offices at like 95+% to go Republican. Not exactly a huge incentive to go vote compared to a truly competitive race.

And despite the margin, gerrymandering away a majority minority district in the panhandle almost certainly flipped at least one seat, resulting in a net gain of +2 to the Republicans.

That matters when the national margin in the house is likely to be <10.

 

Not his style. He will double down as always.

 

Well, first no there don't want to kill Medicare and Social Security. That's a silly and groundless argument. They certainly don't want to expand it, and I'm in agreement with that.

Second, neither party is that fiscally sound, but the needle leans to the R side on that issue. Even Biden and Dem leaders continue to exclaim spending more is better now, even into headwinds of about every economist's opinion.

As far as deficits go, they never tell us who created the spending that drove the deficit up. It can take several years or more for money appropriated to end up hitting the deficit. So dividing it with 4-year lines is not really making an argument one way or the other.

But looking at the economic factors that affect everyday Americans like me, the 8-9% inflation at the forefront, the Rs have a better plan than the Ds. And with a Dem president, they can't get ridiculous stuff passed like the Dems did owning all three chambers.

 

What is the Republican plan to combat inflation?

 

Man, I keep hearing how it's only Reps who are election deniers.

 

Who denied an election? How is it denying an election to discuss the long-term strategy of gerrymandering?

 

Wit? No! He needs to rage against the machine. Tear down the rest of the GOP on his way to prison…

 

Uggh.

 

Who is in meltdown mode?

DeSantis and Florida did as expected (in Epic fashion). Not going to lie. I certainly thought the rest of the country would follow.

But we are good in Florida!!!

 

LOL. You are questioning the election results because of gerrymandering. Election denier. It's ok. Just own it.

 

The DNC knows DeSantis is the problem for 2024. So let the grasping at straws begin...

 

The level of hostility to these programs among the GOP varies but for the most part you are correct. Their prescriptions often do as much harm as good in this area.

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This is somewhat debatable, but if fiscal prudence and sanity are your primary priority, mixed / split party government is by far and away the most effective.

You can argue this either way until you are blue in the face, depending on your perspective. During the Bush era you had 2 unfunded wars, an major entitlement expansion with no funding, a vast expansion of the homeland security complex with no funding, and 2 tax cuts with no spending offsets. You can come up with similar arguments against Reagan.

With Trump you had the largest peacetime/ prosperity deficits as a percent to GDP in modern history.

Democratic presidents with Republican congresses tend to be the most fiscally conservative.