Why are Democrats pushing so hard to bring Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia into the union as states?
The answer will become pretty clear in 2032. People are voting red with their feet. And Congress and the Electoral College are going to change.
Texas and Florida appear likely to gain two seats apiece. The Carolinas, Georgia, Arizona, Utah and Idaho are all contenders for another vote apiece.
In the meantime, New York and California appear likely to lose 1-2 seats apiece. Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and West Virginia all appear to be contenders to lose seats.
A swing of as many as (checking my math) nine electoral votes (and House Seats) from the Democrats to the GOP appears likely.
The population of Puerto Rico has about the same as Utah, which has six electoral votes (presuming an honest census – which I do not, but for sake of this argument let’s say it is for bow). DC? Yep – three electoral votes.
Kinda explains it all, doesn’t it?
One of the organizers of DemoCommie cheating, Ken Martin, has thrown his name in the hat to be the head of the national DNC. It would be great to see him get it, if for no other reason than we get rid of him, but for the country to go more red than ever.
Isn’t it kind of a big procedural thing to add a state? What sort of clout do the DemoCommies have to pull this off?
Also, Trump did pretty well with Puerto Ricans in this last election. Maybe the DemoCommies don’t really know what they’re doing?
Ben Shapiro has talked about how the latest Census was screwed up and resulted in something like 15 Congressional Seats being mis-apportioned, mostly towards Blue States.
Personally, I think Apportionment should be done based on citizens, not residents, and definitely shouldn’t include illegal aliens. That would drastically change the Congressional and Electoral College maps. I tried looking up how many non-citizens are in California, but the only numbers I got are for foreign born residents. While that will include citizens, I don’t know how “foreign born” is broken down between naturalized citizens, legal non-citizen residents (both temporary and permanent), and illegal aliens. I was able to find out that about 25% of California’s population is foreign born, accounting for about 12 Congressional Seats out of 52. If California’s Congressional representation was apportioned based on citizens only, the State would lose a lot of districts.
The Electoral College change would be a pretty big deal, but the impact in the House would be minor compared to the impact of four new reliably leftist Senators.
Sailor,
I agree that 4 Democrat Senators would tip the balance in the Senate reliably to Democrat control, though I also think that it would have some affect against Democrat Senators in Swing and Reddish States.
OTOH, moving dozens Congressional Districts from Blue States to Red States could do the same thing the other way. Texas would probably lose a few Districts too, but I also expect the Texas Legislature to design Districts based around citizens and not merely residents, which would dilute power away from the Blue Enclaves within the State (looks at Austin).
I try to not to be too pessimistic about this. Electoral trends are not static. Trump got a higher share of the minority vote than any Republican in decades if not ever. Also, as recently as the 1980s, Political “Experts” thought that the Presidency would be perpetually held by a Republican while the House and Senate would be held by Democrats. That misconception was blown up in 1992 and 1994. The first, largely because Bush I f***ed up by not learning from Reagan, and the second, largely because Clinton tried to let Hillary take over Healthcare in the Country and people still knew that was a disastrous idea.
When Democrats regain power, if they try to rig everything to keep themselves in power forever, they will at least run everything into the ground to the point that their incompetence is obvious to anyone not blinded by Bad Orange Man (and Trump will probably have died of old age by then), or the Republican States will merely secede from the Union and start an alternative Country.
As Solomon’s ring said, “This too shall pass.”
“OTOH, moving dozens Congressional Districts from Blue States to Red States could do the same thing the other way. Texas would probably lose a few Districts too”
I was specifically addressing the proposition of adding DC and Puerto Rico as new states. As you say, redistricting due to changes in census counts will be very impactful…but in my opinion that’s just the republic working the way it was intended by the founding fathers. States with policies that improve the lives of the residents are naturally rewarded by gaining more residents, increasing their influence on the national stage. States with policies that impair the lives of the residents are punished by people departing for greener pastures…voting with their feet.