Certainly looks that way when you check out the redistricting that's gone on in so many states. Ryan Lizza posts a map at the New Yorker showing which districts in which states are not only what one might call the backhill parts of America's 50 but are effectively a permanent majority in the House thanks to Freedom Works, gerrymandering, the easy-hot corporate media, and schools that put us at 18th in the world. Not to mention state legislatures that drew the maps.
Lizza calls them the "suicide caucus." He picked that up from Charles Krauthammer who writes opeds for the Washington Post
and is one of the most depressing, elitist conservatives around. You may recognize his face: I bet he's on TV a fair amount. If you squint at the photo, you'll see that's a Fox channel.
Krauthammer is far from being a numskull. Find someone that intelligent embracing the kinds of politics he embraces and you gotta wonder, though . When Krauthamer opted for the phrase "suicide caucus," he had to be referring to the Republican party which shouldn't be allowed to survive the damage they're doing. But wait...
The members of the suicide caucus live in a different America from the one that most political commentators describe when talking about how the country is transforming. The average suicide-caucus district is seventy-five per cent white, while the average House district is sixty-three per cent white. Latinos make up an average of nine per cent of suicide-district residents, while the over-all average is seventeen per cent. The districts also have slightly lower levels of education (twenty-five per cent of the population in suicide districts have college degrees, while that number is twenty-nine per cent for the average district). ...Lizza,NewYorker
And there they are, a big part of what's wrong with gerrymandering. You find yourself with a government that's uninformed, undemocratic, easy to con, and extremely well-funded by extremists. This group? Their party apparently can't control them.
In previous eras, ideologically extreme minorities could be controlled by party leadership. What’s new about the current House of Representatives is that party discipline has broken down on the Republican side. On the most important policy questions, ones that most affect the national brand of the party, Boehner has lost his ability to control his caucus, and an ideological faction, aided by outside interest groups, can now set the national agenda.
Through redistricting, Republicans have built themselves a perhaps unbreakable majority in the House. But it has come at a cost of both party discipline and national popularity. ...Lizza,NewYorker
You think stressing education is "elitist"? No, it's not. The best possible education for all is the mark of the best and most successful society. Our average scores put us at about 18th in a world where everything else about us is apparently considered "most powerful" and "most prosperous." A lousy score for education may be the reason why many dismiss it as "elitism." If you can't get it, well, it's not worth anything anyway. Which leaves us with a country and a future that's guaranteed to be at least 18 points behind what we've come to expect.
Not a smart move... certainly not when it results in rigid johnny-one-notes being left in charge of our House of Representatives.
