For many, many years now, we have all heard things that seem contradictory about how progressive politics is inevitable in the United States.
Polls have consistently shown that a solid majority - nearly two-thirds - accept climate change as a reality in this world.
Yet, climate change deniers continually get elected to the nation's highest office, including the White House. Rarely are any serious measures to address climate change ever so much as discussed.
Polls also show an even wider majority of Americans support reasonable measures, such as background checks, for gun ownership.
Action on addressing gun control are almost never seriously discussed, much less acted upon.
Here's one that might sound astonishing. A significant majority - 57% - of Americans believe that government should ensure that all Americans have healthcare. Yet somewhat paradoxically, 51% believe in private healthcare. How faith in a failed system like the one that we have here in the United States can still be so strong remains a mystery to me. Still, clearly a majority of Americans are aware of the problem of inadequate and unaffordable healthcare, and want the government to actually do something about it. This has been the case for decades.
Yet in Washington, only very rarely does anything substantive actually get done about it. And - surprise surprise! - government resistance, as well as very well-funded, well-organized resistance from major healthcare industries, particularly Big Pharma and health insurance, suddenly starts growing active and vehement anytime this discussion begins to heat up.
What all of this surely feels like it adds up to is that the elected seem increasingly entitled to pick those who elect them, as opposed to the original design of our Constitution, which was supposed to allow the people to elect their representatives. Also, those who are elected seem beholden to the private, moneyed interests - particularly corporations - which means that they act more on behalf of these special interests, and less for the people whom they at least officially were elected to represent and work for.
Oh, they pay lip service to the people, and claim to be doing things in their best interest. But in far too many cases, their record of action and votes suggests otherwise. After all, we just saw the "Big, beautiful Bill" pass, which is clearly not in the interests of the majority of Americans. Yet, things like that keep on passing, don't they?
There are reasons why it's like that in the United States, and pretty much nowhere else. After all, we had the Electoral College system set up in order to try and prevent slave states from feeling outnumbered and powerless. That feels like the roots of another thing which had grown to become a ridiculous reality and massive problem in our clearly broken political system: gerrymandering.
In Texas right now, there is a major political battle shaping up. Texas is mostly a red state, but it also has been described as purple. After all, there are a number of large urban areas in Texas, and many of these tend to lean blue, making the state a lot more purple (mix of blue and red) than people often think. But Republicans of course cannot stand that, and so they are trying to change that with gerrymandering, artificially creating a wide majority in favor of Republicans.
All of this is nothing more than political gimmickry. Trying to create a seemingly massive political majority through sleight of hand, through smoke and mirrors. But the impact is significant. A lot of people are seeing their voices and chance at political representation largely extinguished. There are laws against exactly this kind of gimmick designed to shut out people politically, particularly in the South, in former Confederate and Jim Crow segregationist states, of which Texas was one. Yet, these things just keep popping up, time after time. Under a Trump presidency, these efforts are being rewarded and encouraged.
So bad has this gotten, that it now feels like nothing short of an existential threat to anything resembling real democracy, or the will of the people. We already have Republicans controlling everything to a disproportionate level in comparison to their approval ratings and polling numbers, both across the nation and individual states. Yet this is not enough for them. They want more. They want this to be permanent, and their backwards rule to become something permanent, like the National Party rule in South Africa during the days of apartheid.
Below was an illustration of this which felt apropos.
Please take a look:
Andrea Wolford · Here is how the GOP wins: redistricting.
Majority in U.S. Still Say Gov't Should Ensure Healthcare by Megan Brenan January 23, 2023:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/468401/majority-say-gov-ensure-healthcare.aspx
Andrea Wolford · Here is how the GOP wins: redistricting.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4084140828494566&set=a.1484753158433359
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