I know Steve doesn't like to drift into polical bickering, and I hope this post doesn't do that, but it
is relevant to the missing hiker post because we can't find out what happened because the website is shut down due to the shut down. These seem like "facts" to me but if they're too controversial, go ahead and delete this post to maintain order.
The discussion above refers to "gerrymandering" district boundaries to make "safe" districts. When that happens, a Congressperson gets more worried about a challenge from a more extreme faction within their own party than they are worried about the other party. The primary election becomes the deciding election. Compromise with the other party can look like betrayal.
The proliferation of "safe" districts happened to both parties to some extent after the 2010 census, but the Republicans did a better job of it. Now they're having a civil war amongst themselves, something the Democrats tend to do often. The very loud and well-financed Tea Party minority wing vs the rich white guy wing and whatever moderates are left in the party. Couple that with rapidly changing demographics and they've got some serious issues. The pollsters are trying to tell them you can't win a national election anymore counting only on middle aged white guys. They're chasing every other demographic group away with their policies and rhetoric, except maybe the elderly.
I make my case with
Joe the Plumber. He's not an "official" spokesperson, but his recent statements seems to capture the true sentiment. It's refreshingly honest, even if it's disgusting to many (myself included).
Eventually people do get disgusted enough. That's what happened in California year after year of not being able to pass a budget without conceding to a handful of Republicans to get them to go along with the Democratic majority. Eventually, it shifted to a super-majority clean sweep of all Republicans from any position of power. They are irrelevant in California.
I personally think we need two healthy parties to make our system work properly, but when one refuses to play nice, they need a time out.
