Why Does Anyone Vote MAGA?

How do Republicans keep power when their policies are so horrible?

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Today we’re exploring: Why does anyone vote for MAGA Republicans? How do they win any races?

Democrats got out a dedicated coalition in the last few elections that includes minorities, young people and women. These voters are roundly rejecting Trumpism. So why do MAGA Republicans persist? Or, more to the point, given Trump’s drop in popularity, how to they keep power?

pettifoggery. dishonesty. crookedness. trickery. dissimulation. chicanery. fraudulence.

These are synonyms for gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is a corruption of the democratic process, and our country is full of it.

Gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries for the purpose of making an advantage for a party or group. This is done by what’s called cracking and packing.

Princeton’s gerrymander project explains: "Packing" occurs when many supporters of the victim party are jammed into a small number of districts, giving them a few overwhelming wins. The remaining members of the victim party are then "cracked," spread across a large number of districts, so that they consistently win just under 50% of the vote.”

Wayne Dawkins describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.

Gerrymandering is named after Elbridge Gerry. He was the Governor of Massachusetts in 1812 and he signed a bill that redistricted Massachusetts for the benefit of the Democratic-Republican Party.

The district was compared to the shape of a  salamander, a mythical animal having the power to endure fire without harm.  So it became the portmanteau of: Gerry-mander. Sadly, Gerry didn’t approve of the process and yet it is named after him.

Redistricting takes place in each state about every ten years after the census.

Why your state legislatures can be so important - The resulting map impacts the Representatives for US House  and the state legislative bodies. In most states, it is controlled by state legislators and sometimes the governor.

I can’t stop thinking that republicans might have lost a generation of voters with their attacks on democracy and women’s rights. Republicans are no doubt trying to find new ways of winning elections with bad ideas.

My grandfather raised his kids to be democrats by telling them every day set the dinner table that Republicans used religion to steal from working people. Every single day. It seems later generations forgot the lessons of the greatest generation. We forgot that democracy has to be fought for all of the time or greedy bad actors will try to steal it.

On election day, I ran into a friend who told me she was relieved by the results so far, but she’s never going to relax now, knowing our rights can be taken at any minute. Think about what that does to women. I’m wondering if women will be telling their kids the warnings my grandfather told us.

Data confirms that 18- 29 year-olds voted for Democrats more than any other age group. Democrats now have an inspired engaged voting block that for three elections in a row, including special elections, have shown up.  Democracy won our midterm.

What will Republicans do? What saves them? We come back to gerrymandering. And Florida. I’ll bet you were wondering what in the heck happened to Florida. The answer is Ron DeSantis’ authoritarian bent unchecked.

 Ron DeSantis seems to be the Republican most closely following Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s method of how to cause democratic backsliding into autocracy. He’s aggressive and on point, unlike Trump. DeSantis’ gerrymandered maps of Florida foreshadow what Republicans would do if unchecked: Even though Florida’s constitution was amended in 2010 to prohibit partisan-driven redistricting,

DeSantis drew his own redistricting maps when he was dissatisfied with the Republican-led state legislature’s maps. They gave Republicans an advantage, but not enough of one. So DeSantis drew his own.