Everyone, please be kind; this pops my diary cherry...
After the back alley ass kicking that democrats by and large suffered nationwide on election night, one thing should be unequivocally clear--Republicans are going to think and act like they have a mandate. After all, when your base doesn't show up, and the other team's does, it's pretty easy to draw a straight line conclusion that voters are giving you a blank check.
We've seen, however, what unchecked Republican rule looks like. Note that I said "rule" and not "governance"; there is a distinct difference and it forms the backbone of this diary. Republicans are not about using government to implement their vision of society. Rather, they are about using government to make sure no one else can ever do anything BUT implement their vision of society and they do this the same way everytime--by pulling up the ladder after they've climbed it.
Whether it's Michigan's emergency manager law, Pennsylvania's epic gerrymandering, North Carolina's reduced early voting orTexas' thinly veiled anti-democrat Voter ID law, Republican electoral strategy has more or less been the same since Laffer's cocktail napkin: take power, change the rules of the game to their benefit, consolidate those gains, shampoo, rinse, repeat.
Sadly for them, no matter how tightly you cluster democratic voters together on a map or how unpleasant you make the act of voting for minorities, those "solutions" don't change their math problem in the electoral college. The "Blue wall" (the 18 states + DC that have voted for Clinton twice, Gore, Kerry & Obama twice) all but ensures that by starting from a base of 242 electoral votes, unless last night's epic swing state fail is replicated in a presidential electorate (spoiler alert--not bloody likely), a GOP candidate has to essentially win out among the next 9 bluest states (CO, FL, IA, NC, NH, NM, NV, OH, VA). Florida is already a GOP must win; if you put VA in the democratic column, (and if Mark Warner can survive last night after not taking his challenger seriously, I think one has to at least say the state now tilts blue), then Ohio and North Carolina also clinch for team blue.
And therein lies the problem. Or from their point of view, the opportunity...
The states themselves are in charge of how their elector's are doled out. And for 235+ years now with only token exception, it has been on the basis of a "winner take all" system. The benefits of this if you're a swing state are seemingly obvious--why would a candidate pay attention to your state if you have the really stupid idea of doling them out proportionately?
But if you're the GOP and you're staring at the reality that you have NO ONE who currently shows the strength necessary to get to 270 electoral votes, suddenly half a loaf is looking mighty tasty.
There were rumblings about this before. In the aftermath of Obama's win several states with GOP trifectas in charge of blue and purple states kicked the tires on this proposal. The media was still watching then, however, and the storyline of "GOP loses, throws fit and changes rules" was not a good look. Decorum and the risk of backlash forced them to back down.
That was then. This is now.
In the afterglow of a GOP tsunami and with the media pimping the "Obama and democrats must compromise" narrative, there is little if anything stopping them from stacking the deck in their favor. The House of Representatives, absent an '08 level wave, seems lost for this decade. And now, they have the chance to pick the lock around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
This can't be allowed to happen. I am no fan of seeking to gum of legislative works because you lost. Even the Wisconsin 14, as noble as their cause was, was not in my view how a democracy is supposed to work. (Do not get me started on the Turtle's epic filibustering).
But this is different. This would fundamentally and quite possibly irrevocably alter the rules of the game for partisan advantage. I'm perfectly happy to have the fight over the points on the scoreboard. The rules of the game are not subject for debate.
I implore everyone who has taken the time to read this far: if you are from a blue or purple state with a GOP trifecta (OH, WI, MI, PA, FL are the most obvious candidates): Contact your chamber's minority leaders and tell them to start planning TODAY on how to quickly evacuate their caucus to a territory with a blue governor (Or even Canada and Puerto Rico). Have bags packed, arrangements made to stay with friends, a savings built up, all the logistics settled. If you know people in these states or have relationships with them--tell them to take this seriously.
With the Supreme Court in GOP hands and now both houses of Congress doing the same (in no small part thanks to said supreme court), the electoral college is the last structural advantage the democratic party enjoys. I shudder to think of the world that awaits if this too is allowed to fall.