The Democratic plan to dominate state legislatures has its first electoral success.
By Kimberley Strassel November 8, 2019
Analysts are reading Tuesday’s tea leaves, predicting what the off-year election results mean for the presidential race. But one victory is beyond dispute. Former Attorney General Eric Holder will be celebrating this week for a decade.
Democrats on Tuesday won total control of Virginia’s government, adding both chambers of the General Assembly to the governor’s mansion. They will redraw Virginia’s legislative district lines after next year’s census. The Old Dominion was already moving left, though the redistricting power likely cements Democratic dominance over Virginia for the next 10 years.
This was Mr. Holder’s plan. While most prominent Democrats spent the months following Donald Trump’s election plotting future runs, Mr. Holder was launching the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, committed to domination of electoral mapmaking through the courts and legislatures. The NDRC spent its first years aggressively litigating legislative maps it didn’t like, to great success. Virginia’s election was the first test of the electoral piece of Mr. Holder’s strategy, and it will now serve as the model by which Democrats attempt to gain redistricting power in 11 other key states next year.
The NDRC claims its efforts are aimed at simple “fairness in the electoral system.” It says it’s working to overturn gerrymanders that “disenfranchise” voters. Don’t be fooled. Mr. Holder’s group has never engaged in blue states where Democrats routinely draw maps to disadvantage Republicans, such as Maryland, Massachusetts or New Jersey.
The NDRC is instead the Democratic version of the GOP’s success of a decade ago, the Redmap Project. Democrats, flush from Barack Obama’s 2008 victory, tuned out the state legislatures. Republicans used their inattention, along with a sweeping cash advantage and a backlash against the Obama presidency, to flip 21 state chambers in 2010, allowing them to dominate map-drawing after that year’s census. That power helped consolidate Republican control of state chambers and the U.S. House. Republicans might be flattered by Mr. Holder’s imitation—if they weren’t so busy getting crushed.
The Holder “sue to blue” litigation strategy has already yielded major gains for Democrats, as state judges struck down maps drawn by Republicans and required changes that ultimately aided the Democrats. Example: Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court—which is chosen through partisan elections and has a Democratic majority—in 2018 overruled the U.S. House maps drawn by the Republican legislature and produced its own version. The new maps helped Democrats flip three net seats. In Virginia, federal judges redrew the state legislative map to aid candidates running this week.
The movie Titanic had one really good scene. The ship had already swiped the iceberg. The behemoth continued sailing along and appeared to be doing just fine. But one person on the ship, Thomas Andrews, knew that it was doomed. Andrews was a naval architect who was in charge of the plans to build the ship.
After he tells the captain and some other key people on the ship that it is going to sink, they react in disbelief. One declares that the ship can’t possibly sink.
Andrews responds, “She’s made of iron, sir! I assure you she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty.”
It’s one of cinema’s great scenes as men wrestle with approaching doom, made all the stronger by Victor Garber’s superb performance. It’s also the perfect metaphor for our current moment in history.
People pay too little attention to math because numbers lie far less effectively than words. There comes a point when a nation has raced over the cliff, but it may take years before that reality becomes obvious to everyone.
This movie scene was on my mind heading into election night in 2016. All indications were that Hillary Clinton was going to be elected. Based upon the math, America as a nation appeared doomed. Clinton was eyeing the White House like a ravenous wolf and relishing the opportunity to cast misery across America.
But Wisconsin and then Michigan and finally Pennsylvania vomited on her pantsuit. On election night, I had no idea what we had just elected, but the fact that it wasn’t Clinton was more than enough for one night.
Three years later, President Trump has shattered conservative expectations and may go down in history as one of the greatest U.S. presidents. It brings to mind another historical surprise. Winston Churchill was elevated to leadership during England’s darkest days against all odds. He was under withering attack by both the opposing party and his own in those early months, and his survival as leader was very much in doubt.
Trump was also elevated under extraordinary circumstances that many would regard as a historical anomaly. As a New York real estate mogul and non-politician, he was declared unelectable by prominent and respected Republican pundits. The media initially pushed his candidacy with glee, assuming he would be the easiest Republican for their paramour to knock off in the general election. They were spectacularly wrong.
An excellent program explaining our constitution as it pertains to the Mueller Report. Mark Levin’s LIfe, Liberty and Levin show airs every Sunday night on Fox at 10 pm. He always has guests that are extremely informative on issues that are currently facing our nation. Nancy P.S. This is the full interview, if the video stops and a commercial begins, wait a few seconds and the video will resume.
Life, Liberty & Levin 5/12/19 | Mark Levin Fox News | May 12, 2019
Life, Liberty & Levin 5/12/19 Life, Liberty & Levin explores the fundamental values and principles undergirding American society, culture, politics, and current events. His guest is Dr. John Eastman, a constitutional scholar
Trevor Loudon speaks of the Far Left in our government and how they work with the Marxists and the Islamists. He names influential members of congress and those running for congressional seats in last weeks election. Absolutely frightening. Please share with your email lists. Nancy
This is a rather humorous video of the differences between the Democrat and Republican parties (actually, it is not so funny as it highlights the stark differences between the two parties!) Be sure you vote as the future of this country depends of us, the voters ! Please share with your friends Nancy
These are very interesting statistics concerning the electoral college presented by Allen West. The purpose of the college is to insure that each state is fairly represented.
There are 3,141 counties in the United States.
Trump won 3,084 of them.
Clinton won 57.
There are 62 counties in New York State.
Trump won 46 of them.
Clinton won 16.
Clinton won the popular vote by approx. 1.5 million votes.
In the 5 counties that encompass NYC, (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond & Queens) Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump. (Clinton only won 4 of these counties; Trump won lRichmond)
Therefore these 5 counties alone, more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country.
These 5 counties comprise 319 square miles.
The United States is comprised of 3, 797,000 square miles.
When you have a country that encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election.
Large, densely populated Democrat cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc) don’t and shouldn’t speak for the rest of our countryJY
Since November 8, Democrats have been searching for a scapegoat. Hillary Clinton’s defeat couldn’t possibly signal voters’ rejection of the liberal policies that Barack Obama advanced and Clinton vowed to continue, so progressives are on a quest to find the real culprit. They have thus far floated James Comey, Vladimir Putin, “fake news,” and the rampant racism of a citizenry that twice elected a black president. More consequentially, they are taking aim at one of the cornerstones of our republic: the Electoral College.
From the Constitutional Convention’s opening days, delegates debated how the president should be selected. Yet their decision to have that office chosen by electoral vote was one of the last decisions they made. In one enduringly important respect, the system they chose is a departure from a national popular vote. That is the Electoral College’s weighting mechanism, which grants each state a particular say in the overall result. This remains just as good an idea as it was in 1789. Indeed, in nine key ways, the test of time has proven the Electoral College to be an ever better idea than the convention delegates realized:
1. It requires a candidate to have cross-sectional support. The Electoral College makes it hard for a candidate to win who is not supported by large swaths of the country, from sea to shining sea. In this way, it is a nod to—yes—diversity. A presidential candidate cannot easily prevail by dominating just a few heavily populated regions or municipalities. He or she must appeal to the nation as a whole.
Ian O’Doherty: A two fingers to a politically correct elite
Hillary Clinton has damned her party to irrelevance for at least the next four years in a stunningly self-inflicted defeat. People didn’t vote for Trump because of what he is, it’s what he’s not that appealed
Ian O’Doherty is a columnist who works for the Irish Independent. His “iSpy” column is published Monday –Thursday and contains news articles blended with comedy and shock-jock opinions. On Fridays O’Doherty publishes a rather more serious column containing his opinion on a chosen subject in “The World according to Ian O’Doherty”. He was formerly with the Evening Herald. The Best of the Best–by a Poetic Irishman
November 13, 2016 Tuesday November 8, 2016 – a day that will live in infamy, or the moment when America was made great again? The truth, as ever, will lie somewhere in the middle. After all, contrary to what both his supporters and detractors believe – and this is probably the only thing they agree on – Trump won’t be able to come into office and spend his first 100 days gleefully ripping up all the bits of the Constitution he doesn’t like.
But even if this week’s seismic shockwave doesn’t signal either the sky falling in or the start of a bright new American era, the result was, to use one of The Donald’s favourite phrases, huge. It is, in fact, a total game changer.
In decades to come, historians will still bicker about the most poisonous, toxic and stupid election in living memory.
They will also be bickering over the same vexed question – how did a man who was already unpopular with the public and who boasted precisely zero political experience beat a seasoned Washington insider who was married to one extremely popular president and who had worked closely with another?
The answer, ultimately, is in the question.
History will record this as a Trump victory, which of course it is. But it was also more than that, because this was the most stunning self-inflicted defeat in the history of Western democracy.
Hillary Clinton has damned her party to irrelevance for at least the next four years. She has also ensured that Obama’s legacy will now be a footnote rather than a chapter. Because the Affordable Care Act is now doomed under a Trump presidency and that was always meant to be his gift, of sorts, to America.
How did a candidate who had virtually all of the media, all of Hollywood, every celebrity you could think of, a couple of former presidents and apparently, the hopes of an entire gender resting on her shoulders, blow up her own campaign?
Democrats are using every possible way to change the outcome of this election. They just can’t accept the fact that Americans across this country were fed up with liberals pushing Political Correctness, Global Warming, charges of racism against minorities, the inner cities falling apart with crime surging, sanctuary cities that protect those who are here illegally which flaunts disregard for the rule of law, the loss of good paying jobs for the middle class, flat wages, skyrocketing health care costs, their children being indoctrinated to leftist ideology in our educational system, instability around the world due to Islamic extremism, and the fact that Hillary represented corruption, lies, and more of the same policies that they detested. They’ve had it and they are not going to take it anymore. Nancy
I’ve been harassed by thousands over my Electoral College vote.
ENLARGE
At a campaign rally in Wichita, Kansas, March 5.PHOTO:GETTY IMAGES
By
ASHLEY MCMILLAN HUTCHINSON
Ms. McMillan Hutchinson is the vice chairwoman of the Kansas Republican Party.
EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE:
It started with a couple of emails three days after the election. Since Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote, former electors warned me that I would probably receive hundreds of emails urging me to change my vote to prevent Mr. Trump from getting to the White House. I answered the first few back and had some polite—and some not-so-polite—exchanges with folks urging me to vote for Mrs. Clinton. Grassroots groups such as Ask the Electors had found my work email and spread it to their email lists. They also published my work address, home address, cell phone and work phone.
I had intended on answering everyone who emailed me. Then the flood started. At its peak, I was receiving 500 emails an hour. At least 20 letters arrived at my office daily, and the calls came in 24 hours a day.
This summer, the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party asked me to be one of the six electors who represent the state of Kansas in the Electoral College. I completely geeked out. Of the more than 137 million Americans who voted for president this year, only 538 are electors. While I jumped at the chance, I was not prepared for what would happen next.
I always knewDonald Trumpwould win Kansas, but like most people who follow politics closely, I didn’t expect him to win the Electoral College. I figured that Kansas would let me cast my vote for the also-ran—still a great honor. Then the unthinkable happened.
Election Night left me in awe. There were many reasons to be pleased. Those blue-collar, fly-over, working-class voters who showed up in droves and put Mr. Trump over the edge in several swing states? Those are my people. They weren’t motivated by hate or race. They were disappointed in the current administration and lack of economic progress. The assumptions about this group of voters by the media and ivory-tower elite only motivated them to victory.
