These 3 maps show just how dominant Republicans are in America

[Grey Lemercier]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/12/these-3-maps-show-just-how-dominant-republicans-are-in-america-after-tuesday/

Results are still trickling in, but it looks like Republicans will still control an all-time high 69 of 99 state legislative chambers. They'll hold at least 33 governorships, tying a 94-year-old record.





Urban shift is bad news for Democrats trying to use Donald Trump's unpopularity to chip away at or even erase Republicans' historic majority in the House of Representatives. Because Democrats are clustered in one area of the state, they have less of a say in who represents congressional (and state-level) districts in the rest of the state.




snip

Lowest power level for the Democrats since the Civil War.

We have to start taking back the states, the 2020 Census could further entrench Republican dominance in the US House if they gerrymander even more districts. The Democratic Party is good (and not even that good, apparently) at one thing, a giant push every 4 years for POTUS. We are weak as hell at midterms, and even worse at statewide levels. The rot is damn near insurmountable until demographic change kicks in, but that takes decades. I also full expect white voter power blocks to continue to congeal, IF Trumpism produces even moderate successes, which will be spun into triumphs of caesarian proportions by the lap dog corporate press.

[shraby]

1. How much of that was due to gerrymandering, voter supression and hauling

people off the voter roles?

[csziggy]

5. Much of it is because of the Red Map Strategy

This is how the GOP rigged Congress: The secret plan that handcuffed Obama’s presidency, but backfired in Donald Trump
Monday, Jun 13, 2016 05:58 AM EDT
Paul Rosenberg

The Republican Party is in crisis. It’s an ongoing story played out in multiple episodes a day in recent weeks, and it’s been a growing concern throughout this election cycle.

But the Democratic Party is profoundly broken as well—most notably in the Legislative branch, both in Congress and in state legislatures. After holding the House for four decades, Democrats lost control in the 1994 midterms, and have only held it for four years since then. The 2010 midterm was even more disastrous than 1994, but with an added twist—it was a census year, meaning that the winners that year could gerrymander themselves into power for a full 10 years. And, of course, that also meant a leg up on controlling the next decade of maps. The Republicans did exactly that in an electoral heist both brazen and dangerous–as a new book by Salon’s editor-in-chief David Daley explains.

The power to draw these maps rests largely with state legislatures, and the GOP’s margins there have not been seen since before the Great Depression. There’s a reason why–a plan called REDMAP, as Daley explains in “Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy,” published by W.W.Norton/Liveright this week. But as Daley writes, the Democrats aren’t just badly outnumbered, they are seemingly clueless about the basic nature of the battle they’re involved in, much less what to do about it. Unless that’s fixed—and fast—the Democrats will continue to be at least as broken as the Republicans, for as far as the eye can see.

What will it take for the Democrats to wake up? That’s impossible to say. But Daley lays out everything we need to know about what’s happened to steal our democracy—from the grand plan to the messy on-the-ground reality in districts across the country—as well as pointing to innovative ways of undoing the damage, not by mirroring GOP dirty tricks, but by making our democracy work better than it has in the past.
http://www.salon.com/2016/06/13/this_is_how_the_gop_rigged_congress_the_secret_plan_that_handcuffed_obamas_presidency_but_backfired_in_donald_trump/

The Democratic Party needs to have a Blue Map Strategy of their own so we can swing things back to more balanced representation in 2020!

[etherealtruth]

6. In Michigan a large proportion is due to gerrymandering

[superpatriotman]

2. Glad you posted this to GD

Let's hope it stays kicked and rec'd to the top of this Discussion page until the midterms.

Democrats, to put it mildly, must work smart to increase party membership and countrywide participation.

[Bucky]

3. We suck at mid term voting, when most governors are elected

and then there's the voter suppression thing they do

[Greybnk48]

4. Now we're hearing there may have been a hack

in WI, MI and PA. If so then what?

[superpatriotman]

8. The answer is

If so, so what?

It won't be proven. And even if software engineers and election officials DO manage to prove it, it won't matter.

Noone who matters will listen.

The DNC was hacked. Nothing.

Wikileaks has sent out steaming piles of 'data' (likely hacked and edited). Nothing.

A hack won't save us. Only WE can save us.

[octoberlib]

7. The only reason NC's legislature is still red is gerrymandering.

R's took over in 2010. In 2012 Dems got more votes and should have re-taken the General Assembly but didn't due to gerrymandering.

[JCMach1]

9. Corporate and special interest money is insidious at the Legislative level

add gerrymandering to the mix and you have nothing that looks like democracy.