Wanna Tear Apart the Country?

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/9/14/10426/3721

Wanna Tear Apart the Country?

by BooMan
Wed Sep 14th, 2011 at 10:04:26 AM EST


Forty-eight states allocate their Electoral College votes on a winner-take-all basis (the exceptions are Maine and Nebraska). That's quite likely to change, especially in my home state of Pennsylvania. Each state's share of the Electoral College is based on their two senators and however many members of the House of Representatives they happen to have. In Maine and Nebraska, the winner of the popular vote automatically wins the two Senate delegates. The rest of the delegates are allocated according to the winner of each congressional district. In 2008, Obama lost Nebraska but won in one of its congressional districts. As a result, he was awarded one delegate from Nebraska.

There was nothing illegal or unconstitutional about that, and the same will hold true if Pennsylvania (or Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, or Florida) changes their delegate-assignment system.

Under the Republican plan, if the GOP presidential nominee carries the GOP-leaning districts but Obama carries the state, the GOP nominee would get 12 electoral votes out of Pennsylvania, but Obama would only get eight—six for winning the blue districts, and two (representing the state's two senators) for carrying the state. This would have an effect equivalent to flipping a small winner-take-all state—say, Nevada, which has six electoral votes—from blue to red. And Republicans wouldn't even have to do any extra campaigning or spend any extra advertising dollars to do it.

What we might see is a real effort by the Republican Party to take advantage of their control of state governments to change the rules in a way that the Democrats will be unable to match. Retaliation is not possible because the Dems do not have total control of the government in any red states other than West Virginia and Arkansas. How many congressional districts is Obama likely to win in those two states? Left unsaid in the above excerpt, is that making such a move would reduce Pennsylvania's importance down to roughly the level of New Hampshire. The award for winning the state would only be two Electoral Votes, and the fight beyond that would be over only two or three swing districts. Maybe Obama could carry eight congressional district instead of six, and wind up splitting the delegates 10-10. Either way, the Republican would have pocketed ten to twelve delegates they would have otherwise lost. Repeat that in several other sizable states and suddenly it becomes quite likely that a Republican candidate could win the presidency while getting absolutely thumped in the popular vote.

It's a recipe for civil war, but I guess that's where we're headed anyway, right?

[rfranklin]

1. we always have "second amendment remdies," don't we?

Sharin Angle told us that.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. Sadly, DU is divided. If Democrats can't even come together, then how do we expect

to beat back these Rethugs?

The scenario in 2012, if we don't get our shit together:

Republican in the White House
Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives
Republican-controlled Senate
Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court
Republican-controlled governorships (29 of 50 are currently in Republican hands, more to expected to be elected)
Republican-dominated state legislatures (3/4th of all state legislatures are in Republican hands)
Republican judges at the lower appellate courts (Before Bush Jr. left office, he successfully stacked the lower appellate courts with extreme, far right judges)

[Cosmocat]

3. I would add ...

the Rs are holding up RECORD numbers of judicial appointments that BO has tried to make ...

Even when we were making really meaty gains in 06 and 08, these MFers got their game faces on and rallied JUST in time for the 10 elections. Just horrific timing for redistricting, and these MFers play to win when they get in a position to game the system.

[Modern_Matthew]

4. Yep. We're on our way to being a glass fully empty. nt

[Supersedeas]

5. i believe the economy as directed by the corporate elites will inevitably lead to civil unrest

[AverageJoe90]

6. Criminal manipulation of the system has to stop.

In fact, we may need to eliminate the Electoral College to get things done.

Maine and Nebraska are the only two states legally allowed to do this. Any other state governor tries it, and they should be impeached, especially if they're a Republican.

[totodeinhere]

8. Wrong. Any state is legally allowed to do this, not just Maine and Nebraska.

And then you say "Any other state governor tries it, and they should be impeached, especially if they're a Republican." The problem with that is that to do this the Republicans need to control the state legislature and the governorship. So why in the world would a Republican governor be impeached by a Republican legislature that went along with it in the first place? Get real.

[butterfly77]

7. Kick..