2/ Affording citizens a voice is essential for democracy. It's not surprising that seven out of twenty-seven constitutional amendments addressed voting -- the constitution had a lot of deficiencies in that area. ...it still does.
1/ I'm not a constitutional scholar, so take this with a grain of salt. Through a lens I am more familiar with I think of amendments to the constitution as major patches. You don't want to integrate them often -- too many changes at once confuses design, intuition, and inference.pic.twitter.com/N5CYCVFbTo
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3/ In 2000, George W. Bush was elected POTUS. He lost the popular vote. (His presidency was a disaster.)
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4/ In 2016, Donald J Trump was elected POTUS. He lost the popular vote by a larger margin. (His presidency is an ongoing calamity.)
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5/ Looking towards the future, by 2040, two-thirds of Americans will be represented by 30 percent of the Senate. That's a problem. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/11/28/by-2040-two-thirds-of-americans-will-be-represented-by-30-percent-of-the-senate/?utm_term=.98694173c7d1 …
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6/ "That which worked in the past is a good guide for the future" is a useful heuristic (and a solid epistemological foundation for conservatism). But, the past is increasingly distant. The system has changed dramatically -- in both scale and composition.
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7/ It is wrong to say the popular vote would have denied Bush and Trump their electoral wins (although it's probably true). It's also wrong to say that Gore or Clinton would have been better presidents (although its probably true.)
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8/ But, it is reasonable to believe that a closer alignment between representatives and those they represent facilitates a healthier democracy. The pathological cases occur when the majority conspires to oppress the minority, not merely when the majority has representation.
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9/ What we have now is minority rule by people seeking to oppress a different minority. If you were going to debug that problem, you'd probably spend some time in the voting module, right?
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10/ This is a long-winded way of saying that when
@TheDemocrats (or them and another party) get back in power, I hope they'll use the political capital that accompanies the terminal collapse of the@GOP to further enshrine voting rights. To guard against the current regression.Show this thread
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