Until Tuesday, many of us have seen the signs of rising oligarchy in the U.S. and worried that that our fellow citizens would ignore it until it was too late to stop. Now, it seems, we have woken up just in time to make the next few years a full-out contest for the survival of our democracy.
The midterm election is only a stay. It is not the triumph of U.S. democracy it could have been.
Unfortunately, because of gerrymandering, by which Republicans have cut extreme districts that favor themselves, Democrats will pick up only 27 seats despite their popular strength. A majority of voters – by a large margin – rejects the Republican party, but the party has rigged the system to retain power.
Republican leaders are acting precisely as Democratic slave owners did in the 1850's, when they saw a growing majority turn against them.
As then, leaders are packing the courts as fast as they possibly can to try to rig the laws in their favor. They are trying to retain power by tearing the citizenry in two and setting them at each other’s throats.
Taking away their control of the House of Representatives was a victory for democracy.
The full article is available here
