Friday, November 25, 2016

Numbers Reminder: Still Half-and-Half

Despite all the rhetoric of Republicans "controlling" the government after the election, it pays to remember that the Senate is still very close, the Supreme Court is divided, and an awful lot of the 96% of people living in DC who are Democrats work in government.  You can call it narcissistic entitlement, or just clever politics, or a better grip on reality, but when Democrats have 55 Senate votes they consider it a narrow majority and don't begin to get comfortable until they get to 60 and can do as they wish so long as they have no defectors.  Republicans have not seen anything resembling the majority spikes the Democrats occasionally get. It's not "control."  It's not anything like control. It is still give-and-take and scrambling for the last few votes and debating about whether a filibuster is fair or not.

Not to mention that Trump is inexperienced.  In the campaign he seemed to adapt quickly and break new ground, but I don't know if that will continue when trying to govern.

5 comments:

james said...

It's wishful thinking. Law schools (the pools we draw judges from) are heavily leftist. The bulk of us get our news from a few media outlets with very similar views, and their commentariat is largely leftist.

And the Donald is a life-long Democrat. Maybe he's been on the road to Damascus, but I'd not stake my life betting that way.



I notice that the go-to explanation the past few days has been gerrymandering. As somebody noticed in response, Democrats in Wisconsin have pretty much gerrymandered themselves into a handful of cities.

Unknown said...

I think I agree with this. It seems like such an upset because Trump was the underdog for a half a billion reasons. HRC had a half a billion dollars more, a preponderance of the media, the millionaires and billionaires, an edge in ads, organization, demographics and the electoral college. To repeat myself, I can hardly believe that there were enough voters in the Middle to push back against those who game the system; the Skimmers, the Schemers, the Takers and all their hangers on, and gerrymandering.

Unknown said...

Oops, I forgot. In addition, Trump didn't have campaign experience.

Sam L. said...

Ms. Hook, I would have said "the" preponderance of the media, not "a". Most of us in Flyoveria, Ruralia, and Backwateria have been insulted long enough.

Earl Wajenberg said...

"Not to mention that Trump is inexperienced. In the campaign he seemed to adapt quickly and break new ground, but I don't know if that will continue when trying to govern."

He "adapted" so quickly as to give a convincing appearance of incoherence and/or complete opportunism. This continues.