Every American, imo, should listen to Heather Cox Richardson’s eight-part video series, The American Paradox. Yeah, it’s history. Yeah, there’s lots of details in there. Yeah, it can get a little long here and there, but multitask and do the dishes while you’re listening, listen while you’re driving, or something. But listen.
The Republican party of today has oligarchic roots from Southern slave-ownership days, have twisted the democratic process to favor their control of the Senate, and their goals have always been the same: keep wealth in the hands of a few (white men, for the most part), do as little as possible for “the little people.”
That doesn’t mean all who affiliate as Rs are oligarchic. Of course not. But the party? O-L-I-G-A-R-C-H-S!
An interesting little tidbit I learned in listening to her videos: Wanna know why we have both a North Dakota and a South Dakota state in a most unpopulated part of the country? Yep, dividing Dakota into two states created two more practically guaranteed Republican Senators in each election. And more electoral votes. #shenanigans
The entire less-populated West, by dint of Republican gerrymandering after the Civil War, was all and only about Senate control and tilting the Electoral College in their favor.
You may have heard this before, but five U.S. presidents have NOT won the popular vote but did win the presidency via the Electoral College. The party of each one of them? Republican. (Well, JQ Adams was a Whig, which is kinda the same thing.)
To quote my favorite #ResidentAlien, “This is some bullsh * t.”
