The Gap
By Nick Caraway
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“In politics there are lags and there are gaps. Since elections happen every two years there are often lags in representation. It just takes time for legislatures and Congress to catch up to the will of the people. When those lags become consistent they become gaps and we have that currently with the Senate. It is becoming what I like to call the “frustration gap.”
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The frustration gap rears its ugly head in two distinct ways. Currently, the 50 Democratic senators represent 42 million Americans more than the 50 Republican senators. That’s certainly a gap. Gerrymandering has found a way to create a similar gap in the House, but the gap is not nearly as pronounced.
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The second gap finds its way into individual issues. For instance, the Pew Research Center finds that 66 percent of the country is in favor of the $15 minimum wage according to its polling. Yet, the Senate can’t take it up because of current parliamentarian rules. In theory, such a robust public support should render even the cloture rule moot. Yet, representation is not truly representative. We certainly know that all too well here in Texas.
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As someone that studies politics, the frustration gap concerns me. We have faux outrage like we saw on January 6th, but this has the potential to turn into genuine outrage. What happens as the frustration builds and nothing seems to happen. The minimum wage is only the beginning. We have voting rights legislation, environmental legislation, gun control legislation, and infrastructure upgrades that a majority of the population wants. As it currently stands, they may not get any of it.
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What concerns me is that most people are educated only enough to know they aren’t getting what they wanted. Demagogues like the last president take advantage of that frustration. They feed off of it. They know good and well that they have no intention of fixing the source of it. After all, their party is the source of it. Yet, as long as most people don’t educate themselves as to who is behind their frustration, they will continue to put the same idiots back in charge. Then what?”
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Nick
How adorable that you think that the public has any serious interest in true information rather than comfortable, pleasing information.
Perhaps wrapping the true information in chocolate would help?
1Ormond Otvos @1, the truth has been wrapped in a brown substance for decades, but it’s not chocolate. Then again, much of humanity has been wrapping itself in soft soothing fairy tales for centuries and some damn scary stuff in the OT, too. Isn’t the Easter Bunny due to make its rounds soon? Weird combination that chocolates, pastel eggs and a dude nailed to a cross.
2The Senate’s gap of 42 million people represented is based on total population of the states. And that is somewhat troubling.
What I find worse is the gap of voting and outcome. In 5 of the past 6 Presidential elections, there have been more votes for the Democratic candidate, yet the Republican candidate won 3 times.
I haven’t done a similar assessment of Senate and House votes in all 20 years of elections. But in 2018, “Among the most eye-catching was a statistic showing Democrats led Republicans by more than 12 million votes in Senate races, and yet still suffered losses on the night and failed to win a majority of seats in the chamber.” In the 2018 House elections, “Democrats won the House popular vote by about seven percentage points in Tuesday night’s midterms. They picked up 29 Republican-held seats in the House, while losing two of their own incumbents, resulting in a net gain of 27.” seats.” The Democrats’ majority, however, was 222 to 211. A 7% margin of votes, if divided equally, would have been a 30 seat majority.
3john in denver @3, I love numbers, but I also accept the reality that the numbers do not fully reflect the reality of the QOP ratfucking that gerrymandering, voter suppression, and outright cheating have accomplished to “steal the vote.” Precious, eh? What the ***king moron** and his imitation Bundy Dildo Brigade false flag supporters claim is exactly what the QOP has been doing for decades. That projection/deflection thing to which they are so attached has to be beyond exposed which it is. President Biden has to “go there” and call this what it is, and send VP Harris to the Senate to blow up the parliamentarian’s faulty ruling.
The House sent the bill to fix that to the Senate. fwiw I don’t see how the Senate can maneuver through QOP obstructions without going nuclear on the filibuster.
4The Senate has been as closely divided as now in 1950 and 1954. In ’54, a senator’s suicide flipped control.
That is why the more cerebral rightwingers attack the Seventeenth Amendment.
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