The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Tuesday
Oct222013
The Commentariat -- Oct. 23, 2013
... Steve Benen: "I put together the chart above..., which should terrify Republican officials. By a nearly four-to-one margin, Americans believe GOP lawmakers in Congress aren’t concerned with the nation’s best interests. That’s just astounding."
Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service plans to delay the start of tax-filing season by a week or two because of the government shutdown, the agency said on Tuesday. But taxpayers will still have to turn in their 2013 returns by April 15 as usual."
Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "A Labor Department report showing lackluster hiring in September — 148,000 jobs — is expected to further put off the Federal Reserve’s decision to reduce its stimulus efforts."
"Falling Behind." New York Times Editors: "A particularly alarming report on working-age adults was published last week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.... The research focused on people ages 16 to 65 in 24 countries. It dealt with three crucial areas: literacy..., numeracy..., and problem solving.... Americans were comparatively weak-to-poor in all three areas.... Americans who are 55 to 65 perform about average in literacy skills, but young Americans rank the lowest among their peers in the 24 countries surveyed.... The United States ... has yet to take on a sense of urgency about this issue. If that does not happen soon, the country will pay a long-term price."
** Greg Botelho of CNN: "President Barack Obama didn't know of problems with the Affordable Care Act's website -- despite insurance companies' complaints and the site's crashing during a test run -- until after its now well-documented abysmal launch, [Kathleen Sebelius] told CNN on Tuesday." ...
... Denver Nicks of Time: "In an interview with CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius offered platitudes but few answers on what's wrong with HealthCare.gov.
She has the president’s confidence. And she knows that. -- Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff
Really? Why? -- Constant Weader
... Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: HHS Secretary Kathleen "Sebelius, the former Kansas governor and onetime insurance commissioner who is the public face of Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul, is facing a barrage of criticism over the problem-plagued rollout of its online insurance exchange. For Republicans, still reeling from their failed 'defund Obamacare' strategy and the resulting government shutdown, she has proved a convenient target.... Even her Democratic defenders agree that the secretary did not help herself with a fumbling appearance earlier this month on 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.'” (Parts 1 & 2 of the October 7 interview are here.) ...
Jon Stewart reviews Healthcare.gov (October 21):
... Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times is appalled "that the government and its army of private contractors made incredibly elementary errors in building the exchange.... [It’s] like creating a newspaper site without knowing whether you can show articles.... The federal government has computer experts who can track every phone call every American makes every day, but it couldn’t manage to get this right?" ...
... Thank the Fates! Darrell Issa Is on the Case! Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday charged that the federal ObamaCare site is floundering because federal officials tried to hide the 'sticker shock' of insurance premiums. In a letter to two top technology officers at the Office of Management and Budget, Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) accused the administration of making the 'political decision' to mask the costs of insurance premiums online, which he says contributed to the botched website development.... Oversight ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said Issa’s letter 'mischaracterizes the briefing we received and omits key information that directly contradicts [Issa's] accusations.'” CW: That Rep. Cummings. He's so hung up on facts. ...
... Brian Beutler of Salon: "Let’s stipulate that the conservatives crying crocodile tears for uninsured Americans who’ve been badly inconvenienced by broken Obamacare websites are engaged in a world-historical performance of organized concern trolling. If you’re a reporter or a news junkie or a constituent, you should be absolutely clear that these people don’t want Healthcare.gov to work and are making wild, unsupportable claims to discourage people from becoming insured." ...
... Igor Volsky of Think Progress: Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY) says "his state-operated exchange, Kynect, is working well.... Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) dismissed the state’s progress, however, insisting that Obamacare has 'completely failed' and arguing that the governor is praising the program for political purposes:
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel diagnoses the problems with Healthcare.gov & suggests how the administration should go about fixing it. CW: They don't seem to be following doctor's orders.
Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "When the new health-care law was being cobbled together, Congress decided to establish a network of nonprofit insurance companies aimed at bringing competition to the marketplace, long dominated by major insurers. But these co-ops, started as a great hope for lowering insurance costs, are already in danger.... One co-op ... has closed, another is struggling and at least nine more have been projected to have financial problems, according to internal government reviews and a federal audit. Their failure would leave taxpayers potentially on the hook for nearly $1 billion in defaulted loans and rob the marketplace of the kind of competition they were supposed to create. And if they become insolvent, policy holders in at least half the states where the co-ops operate could be stuck with medical bills."
Quit Disrespecting Us! Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "House Republicans demanded a briefing on ObamaCare's rollout after news broke Tuesday that the administration would huddle on healthcare reform with House Democrats. 'This snub is all the more offensive after [Health] Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius declined to testify at a House hearing this week,' spokesman to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Brendan Buck said in a statement." ...
For months now, House Democrats have held briefings on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and tomorrow’s Caucus meeting is yet another in this series of discussions. While we appreciate House Republicans’ newfound interest in the implementation of health reform, it is clear they are not interested in anything other than continuing their desperate drive to sabotage this law, which so far has included shutting down the government. -- Nancy Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, responding to the GOP complaint
Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "A White House national security official was fired last week after being caught as the mystery Tweeter who has been tormenting the foreign policy community with insulting comments and revealing internal Obama administration information for over two years Jofi Joseph, a director in the non-proliferation section of the National Security Staff at the White House, has been surreptitiously tweeting under the moniker @natsecwonk, a Twitter feed famous inside Washington policy circles since it began in February, 2011 until it was shut down last week. Two administration officials confirmed that the mystery tweeter was Joseph, who has also worked at the State Department and on Capitol Hill for Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Joe Biden. Until recently, he was part of the administration's team working on negotiations with Iran." The article includes a few of his tweets. CW: So, um, it took the NSA & the White House national security staff two years to find one of its own inside the White House? WTF??? Make that the National Stupid Agency & the National Ignoramus Administration.
CW: Not sure who wins the HeckuvaJob Brownie Award, but Sebelius & James Clapper are falling all over each other to take the prize. For those of you who think only Republican administrations are incompetent, think again.
NEW. Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "James R. Clapper, the United States director of national intelligence, late Tuesday disputed reports in a French newspaper that American spies recorded data from 70 million phone calls in France in a single 30-day period, calling the reports 'misleading.' ... Mr. Clapper did not address additional allegations in Le Monde that the National Security Agency had monitored 'French diplomatic interests' at the United Nations and in Washington."
Gubernatorial Race
Rasmussen Reports, the right-leaning, unreliable polling outfit, reports: "Democrat Terry McAuliffe has jumped to a 17-point lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia gubernatorial race following the federal government shutdown that hit Northern Virginia hard and Hillary Clinton’s weekend visit to the state. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Virginia Voters finds McAuliffe with 50% support to Cuccinelli’s 33%. Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis is a distant third with eight percent (8%) of the vote. Three percent (3%) like some other candidate, while five percent (5%) remain undecided." ...
... David Atkins of Hullabaloo: "Terry McAuliffe isn't exactly the most attractive candidate, either, and he's practically a symbolic embodiment of establishment Washington. If the shutdown were creating a universal distaste for Washington establishment politicians and a craving for straight-talking outsiders (as many in the media are suggesting), then Cuccinelli should be doing much better. But no. It appears that the shutdown fiasco is almost unilaterally hurting conservatives and Republicans at this point. And that's as it should be." ...
... James Hohmann & Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Michael Bloomberg’s pro-gun-control super PAC will drop $1.1 million on ads for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the final two weeks of the Virginia governor’s race. The billionaire New York City mayor’s money will be siphoned through Independence USA PAC into broadcast television commercials in the D.C. market, according to two sources tracking the air war."
Local News
The 47% Downeaster.About 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don’t work.... About 47 percent. It's really bad. -- Gov. Paul LePage (RTP-Maine), a/k/a America's Worst Governor ...
... Mike Tipping of the Bangor Daily News: "The quote is stunning, both for how ridiculous it is on its face as well as how closely it mirrors a comment made by 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who also took aim at 47% of the population.... LePage’s statistic is completely wrong. Currently, around 65% of Mainers over the age of 15 are working or are unemployed and actively seeking work. Of the remaining 35%, almost all are retired, are caring for children or other family members, are pursuing education or training or have a disability that prevents them from working."
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Reader Comments (19)
@Noodge: One of the fundamental differences between liberals & conservatives is that liberals are open to thinking outside the box; conservatives want to hide in a corner of the box they're in.
I know it's not fair to assume you would self-identify as some genre of liberal just because you sometimes click on this site, but the fact is that the vast majority of Reality Chex readers would call themselves liberals or progressive or lefties or some such. But the argument you posited in yesterday's thread betrays an essential conservatism. You wrote, in part,
"As a matter of law, no party to a contract has the right to void the terms of the contract as long as the other party is adhering to the terms of the contract. Essentially, the constitution is a contract between the states and the federal government which outlines the terms under which each of the individual states agreed to be part of the United States.... As long as the federal government does not violate the the constitution, no state has the right to withdraw because of the duty it owes both the federal government and the other states."
This is spinning your wheels to lock in the status quo.
I would agree with you that the Constitution is a form of contract. I'm not sure all Southerners would agree that the federal government hadn't violated the terms of that contract. They certainly believed that the federal government had violated the terms of the Tenth Amendment. As for the Thirteenth Amendment, it became a part of the Constitution under quite dicey circumstances. (You can read a summary in Wikipedia.) Mississippi didn't ratify it until 1995 (not a typo) & didn't notify the Federal Register of ratification until this year. All of the states that attempted to secede rejoined the Union under great duress & against their wills -- with a gun to their heads, you might say -- a condition that invalidates a contract.
If you read some of my comments about secession -- & I think you did, as I recall you countered them -- then you know I don't favor an extra-legal secession. I wrote that it could be carried out in an orderly, lawful manner. Speaking of the Thirteenth Amendment, you will note that the Constitutional "contract" can be amended. I'm not certain whether lawful secession would require a Constitutional amendment, or if federal law would suffice. But if an amendment was required, then an amendment it would be. So your notion that the Constitutional contract cannot be breached is incorrect. Of course it can. Just as you & I could agree to amend a contract we had drawn & one or both of us had partially performed, the people have a right -- built into the Constitution itself -- to amend the Constitutional contract. We've done it 27 times, even amending amendments.
Like @Marvin Schwalb, I don't think any states would actually secede. Even in the most rabidly-winger states, I doubt if more than about a quarter of voters would actually vote to secede if they had the opportunity. One reason, as @Diane points out, is the adherents to the Responsible Party would rather caterwaul than be placed in a position of having to "exercise their own personal authority." But I do think it would be nice to give them a chance to get the hell out of Dodge. And if by chance a state took us up on our offer, well, I'd say, "Don't let the swinging doors hit you in ass. Adios. Vaya con your own special fundamentalist dios."
Marie
Too much going on this week for a long comment but have enjoyed the quick scans of RC I've managed. Thoughts about secession do intrigue. My own have been more financial and geographical than legal or constitutional. Briefly, we might all dream of cutting off those red states so fond of suckling more from the federal teat than they contribute, while making political hay by biting (let's say) the hand...
But it is the geographical considerations that interest me more. When I think about secession, I picture the interruptions to commerce that would follow a multi-state claim to shipping on the Mississippi or any of our other major river/internal waterway systems (many created and financed by the federal government), for instance, or the systems of tariffs or other internal restraints on trade that might ensue at multiple borders. The Mississippi aside, getting grain from N. Dakota though the Great Lakes to the east could well require some awkward transitions from red to blue...and under any scenario, I shudder to think of the New Orleans area entirely under the control of a Jindal or his clone..
So....I don't think secession is gonna happen either. It would be too messy and financially, the red-state crybabies can't pick up their ball and go home because when you get down to it, they don't own the ball. They can't afford one. They get their ball from daddy, and instead of being grateful, spoiled children that they are, they resent him instead. No, not secession. Thoughtless and self-destructive patricide is more in their line.
@ Marie: Thank you for the thoughtful response (and yes, I read your comment; I read them all).
Actually, we agree that secession could be achieved in the orderly, lawful manner you describe, but in order for the breaking of the contract to be lawful, it must have the consent of all parties to the agreement.
So when the Southern states decided, in 1861, to void the results of the federal elections by choosing to secede they did not do so lawfully as their actions did not enjoy the consent of the other parties to the contract.
And if Texas wants to secede, and they ask politely, I'd probably be inclined to say yes. Alabama wouldn't even have to be polite.
Certainly many right-wingers today believe the federal government has violated the tenth amendment. The Supreme Court disagrees. Many on the left (and for the record, I consider myself among them) believe the federal government has improperly exercised its powers in violation of the first, fourth, and fourteenth amendments. The Supreme Court disagrees.
But under the terms of our contract we have the ability to change the contract and correct the Court when it's wrong. It merely requires a vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress and the approval of three-fourths of the state legislatures.
Unlimited individual freedom (whether one chooses to call it a Libertarian paradise or simply anarchy) is not the best way for humans to live. We are social animals and must create a system of laws that tries to give us all the greatest amount of individual liberty while at the same time recognizing our obligations to one another (see: Rosseau and Rawls). The framers of the constitution recognized this by putting limits on governmental power while at the same time talking about the government's obligation to promote the general welfare (not once, but twice).
So anyone should feel free to act as she/he will within the limits of our agreement. If that's too confining, ask for permission to break or amend the agreement. But again, my freedom does not include my having the right to say that I'm going to change our agreement no matter what you say.
Re Constitution as contract: I haven't gone back to check sources, but recall from earlier study that when the U.S. Constitution was created, the convention specifically avoided the idea that it was a compact among states, and created a direct connection between all of the people and the federal government. That was among other things a "fix" for the problems in the Articles of Confederation, which the Constitution replaced, and which had been based on a compact among states.
So ... under our current Constitution, the U.S. "shareholders" are citizens. They are also citizens of states; but states are not free to treat their citizens without respect to the rights of U.S. citizenship.
If we wanted to "test" secession, a good trial would be Alaska. When I was up there 20 years ago, the local joke was that "if we had stuck with Russia, we'd be free now." A lot of people up there REALLY dislike the feds. However, when you analyze AK's economy and polity, they are among the most dependent on federal support. As the old Bolshie's would say, AK secession would "enhance the contradictions." Secession advocates would be instantly exposed as seriously misinformed concerning the interests of the citizenry.
Re: You go your way, I'll go mine; Speaking as a Maine "47%er", I would be willing to put down my beer in one hand and the buttery lobster tail in the other and vote for secession. I got nothing else to do until the check arrives in the mail. So I got another border crossing to get to the casinos in the Republic of New Hampshire, so? Soon as the Kingdom of Moose gets up and running the foreign aid from good ol' Uncle Sam will start flowing in. President for life LePage promised a cod in every pot and a snowmobile in every garage. Now if we just get the Canadians to open up their borders and allow us their health insurance.We'll send the kids overseas for their education or at least the next country over. Why bother as long as they go to church. Ah, the smell of freedom; like maple bacon, maybe better.
@Noodge: I agree with your last comment on all points. Their theory of nullification, based on their liberal reading of the Tenth Amendment, notwithstanding, I don't think the Confederate states had the right to secede. They should have tried harder to weasel out, & since they had a disproportionate representation in the House & in the Electoral College because of those lucky 3/5ths people, they might have been able to pull if off. Unfortunately, Southerners & most people everywhere were pretty convinced back in the day that force of arms was a good way to settle a Constitutional issue. Or whatever. As you know, many of their descendants still think so. (BTW, the Second Amendment was designed for & by Southerners who were all worried Northerners wouldn't let them keep the lucky 3/5ths people in line.)
Marie
@Patrick. You're right. Under the Articles of Confederation, sovereignty resided in the states. Under the Constitution, the people of the whole nation are sovereign. But I wouldn't discount Noodge's contractual analogy. Since the states had to ratify the Constitution, there should be a way for them to de-ratify it, at least over the course of decades. (Even the Biblical prophets don't agree on sins of the father.) Jefferson envisioned every generation creating a new constitution, suggesting it wasn't built to last forevah.
Even that bedrock of individual rights -- land ownership -- can be amended, constricted or broken altogether. I might own a piece of land that had been in my family for 10 generations (I don't), but the state can place new limits on my use of the land at any time: changing setback requirements, beefing up building codes, etc., or can take it entirely by eminent domain.
We want our contracts written in stone -- till death do us part -- but not much is. If somebody or some entity wants to get out of a deal -- including one entered into in all good faith -- badly enough, she/he/it will likely find a way.
Marie
The secession talk has me thinking about two great books that have been rattling around my head for a while, "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers" by Paul Kennedy and "The March of Folly" by Barbara Tuchman. I can't help but think about the situation with the province of Quebec in Canada - the French speaking, Canadian equivalent of Texas. Is the problem with this representative Democracy thing just simply that you can't hope to administer something as huge as a whole continent with a teeming population of different backgrounds with only a couple of administrative seats of power? No, Australia doesn't count.
Australia, like the the America of my youth, was a pretty racially and culturally homogeneous place in most areas of the country. Now things have gotten more complex culturally. If the notion of a constitution is the "consent of the governed", why not break down the country into more manageable subgroup? I'm thinking of a newspaper cartoon from many years ago called "the world according to Reagan" where the US was labeled "hard working white people".
It is just as strange to have Somalis in Minnesota as it is to have them in Norway. Humans are a clannish species. The vast centralized, representative Democracy that is encouraged by the authoritarians at the top of the power pyramid runs counter to strong elements in human behavior. By forcing Union onto those who don't approve of your definition of their clan, our government spends and inordinate amount of time consolidating union instead spending time dealing with the complexities of human relations.
While we ponder this secessionist stuff, as Joan Walsh points out we allow the media to pivot away and cease covering the purposeful sabotage of the country by Republicans to covering the inevitable snafus of ACA implementation.
@citizen625, yes that clannish (tribal) human behavior is a big piece of the issue for the concept of 'conservative' where the conserve piece is to protect your cultural identity. The good news is we forget that at one time Irish and Italian were considered 'foreign'. Yes, people of color are more difficult to adapt too. Part of it is level of experience in living with others. The integration can be slow and affected in part by the speed at which the 'others' adapt to our culture. It is not simple on either side.
I try to visit Paris often and like to visit neighborhoods that look like I just got a free trip to Asia or North Africa. So it is not just that people are of 'color' but that they still dress just like their country of origin. I go there, in part, to take photos of images for me to paint. One of my favorites ever is a women dressed like she is in Tangiers, but the good news is that she is carrying a baguette.
At work, I see Muslim women wearing headscarves but they look just like everyone else from the neck down. Yes it takes time on both sides but hopefully it will work its way through.
And let me make this clear, none of the above comment is an excuse. I can't speak for Europe but in America, we are almost ALL immigrants. It is just that some people can't stand up beyond their fears and put America first.
P.S. My biggest personnel problem in this regard is the Chinese families that have moved into my neighborhood. They all walk around to get exercise, making me feel guilty!
Marvin,
Get yourself a bicycle. That way you'll feel right at home in Paris (always wanted to bike along the Seine) as well as with your new Chinese neighbors. And don't forget the baguettes.
JJG,
Everytime I read the name of the state-o-Maine's guv, I think of the glue I used to use as a kid, LePage. There's a big difference between the two however, aside from one being an inanimate object (guess which one).
At least the glue is useful for something.
Akhilleus, thanks for your suggestions but my problem is, in part, unlike the road along the Seine, I live on a serious hill. The other problem is that with very rare exceptions, a baguette in America tastes nothing like one in France.
Marvin,
Damn, another fine plan gone to pot. Back to the drawing board...
I can't help it. You'd think I was an adolescent guy. The picture accompanying this piece by Pierce screams for a caption. "My johnson is this big, so now you know why I'm so mad."
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Advice_To_Young_Journalists
Digby has a good piece on Obamacare, privatization, liberal dogma, and the other guys in the band.
http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/yes-new-democrat-dogma-is-to-blame.html
@AK; glue and the horse's asses that make it. What I was trying in my memo today was a mash-up. I am constantly amazed that the message from the tea party is consistent with the "1 %" greed but is voted for by the "47 %ers". To me that makes a mockery of an eighth grade education. For an example; these right wing religious organizations that preach "Bad Satan government" but suck up that tax free exemption. Marvin will pardon my French but; "Hey, fuck you and chiseling asses; pay up or shut up."
How to get the message across to the guy in the dirty socks that he wants/needs somebody other than the Cock brothers to watch over him?
Hand me another buttery tail and a shot with a Pacifico back; I'm feeling wicked.
JJG,
The other day I read a piece that attempted to put the kibosh on the notion that teabaggers are uneducated louts who sleep on stars and bars bedsheets and clean the guns twice a week (I might have to point to all the 'bagger signs that say things like "Louzy polititians go home" and "Get a brain, moran", my all-time favorite, by the way) by pointing to statistics indicating that a high percentage of 'baggers consider themselves middle and upper middle class and that over 60% have (or claim to have) college or advanced degrees.
The point being, I suppose, that liberals who think of the bagged ones as simpletons, are kidding themselves, and that the current teabaggy wave is no different than GOP elites from other eras.
I don't have the energy to debate every point here, but suffice it to say that we all know plenty of people with college degrees who need directions to get dressed in the morning, and plenty with degrees who, in many instances, give a great impression of competency and intelligence but still think that Medicaid and Medicare are not government programs, or that Obama was born in Kenya, or that the Constitution was written by Martin Luther.
Also, I realize there has been a long history of extremism in the GOP but nothing to rival this craziness. Did anyone outside of goggle-eyed commie hunters think the John Birchers were anything other than cuckoo birds? The current crop of loonies is just as crazy--maybe more so--as the Birchers but wield far more influence. Perhaps it's the right wing media echo chamber that helps the contemporary kooks, but Joe McCarthy, on the day he achieved escape velocity as the biggest asshole in the world, could never have shut down the government, no matter how many congressional stiffs he and Roy Cohn threatened and blackmailed.
So it may be entirely true that plenty of 'baggers have a college diploma.
But all that education still has little impact when they are faced with that "half breed muslin". But then again, they're there to remind us all that "descent is the highest form of patriotic".
Yeah....ahh...what he said.
@citizen625;I understand the impact of Somalis in Minnesota on you. Africans happily adapting to life in smalltown northern Saskatchewan have the same effect on me. I once sat reading with the TV playing in the background when I suddenly became conscious of the interviewee who was telling of how he saved a Canadian military medal from being purchased at auction and taken from Canada. A loss of our heritage. He was saying, in explanation of the outrageous price he paid, "The bidding was down to me and one other guy. I looked over at him and he didn't look Canadian to me so I just kept bidding." I glanced up at the TV and beheld our heritage saviour, a Mr Lee, who was very obviously a Canadian-Chinese. I can only wonder what a non-Canadian looks like.
Canada's Quebec problem is essentially the same problem that the US has with the teaparty, mythology. French-Canadian society was repressed by church and provincial leaders until the death of Premier Duplessis in 1959. A mythology around the repression of the Quebecois by the Rest of Canada had developed to cover and justify the policies that were enabling the maintenance of control and power by the Catholic church and a corrupt provincial government. But at least the people of Quebec had the vote even if at the dictate of the church. Reading a review of 'Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time' in the Sept 26 NYRB I came across a statistic that was a revelation to me. In the 1938 federal election 35,000 Mississippians voted. In a state with 1,900,000 citizens. Assuming that 50% of the population were disenfranchised negroes, that is participation of 3.7% of the population vs 34% in a typical election today. Numbers are similar for the other southern states. A political system developed to ensure employers a labour pool at the lowest possible cost by playing 90% of the whites against 100% of the negroes. For 200 years. If you think the south wants to reintroduce slavery you're wrong. A disenfranchised, compliant, proletariat is the choice of capitalists everywhere. Quebec discovered "maitre chez nous" in 1960, at about the same time that the US decided to enfranchise the negro. In both populations the mythology that supported the previous regime is dying its slow death. Quebec has already held its vote on succession and decided for union with Canada. Only 57% of Texans chose the republicans in 2012. The % of Texans voting for succession would be far less. Union with the US is not in danger. But from the experience of Quebec I can assure you that the year leading up to the vote, with all its ideological ranting, would be an economic annus horribilis for the US. Like reliving 1932. The vote would be cathartic and 47% of Americans might begin to learn of some of the advantages conferred by government.
Akhilleus, let me add another view to the issue of 'baggers have a college diploma. Intelligence has two parts, the IQ and the homework.
It is quite possible to have a college diploma and be an idiot (especially in today's world where 'college' has multiple meanings).
So the baggers have the capability to learn but they don't. I call it hiding. FOX news dosen't make them dumb. They go to FOX because they don't want the truth. They can't face the reality of the world, including as we discussed before all those 'others', that idea that if science got that evolution story right maybe I got my bible story wrong and anything else that requires them to step up and not live in fantasy land. They live in hiding in a world where the facts smack you every day. Invasion of the mind snatchers. Call it cowardice or whatever but their minds have not evolved to deal with television, no less the internet. The best hope is our newest generation who will destroy surgery as a profession because they will all have arthritis in there thumbs before they are thirty.